Toyota raises profit projection for the year as sales hold up

TOKYO (AP) — Japan’s top automaker Toyota reported its fiscal second quarter profit fell 19% from a year ago but raised its full year profit forecast Thursday.

Toyota Motor Corp .’s July-September net profit fell to 759.4 billion yen ($4.8 billion) from 932 billion yen for the same period a year ago.

Quarterly sales rose to 13.4 trillion yen from 12.4 trillion yen, despite headwinds from U.S. tariffs, as well as supply disruptions and rising raw material costs caused by the war in the Middle East.

Toyota is now projecting a 3.57 trillion yen profit for the full fiscal year through March 2027, up from an earlier forecast for 3.25 trillion yen. Its profit for the previous fiscal year totaled 3.8 trillion yen.

Toyota, which makes the Prius hybrid and Infiniti luxury models , sold 4.76 million vehicles for the first fiscal half, down from 4.78 million the previous year.

It expects to sell 9.7 million vehicles globally for the full fiscal year, up from nearly 9.6 million sold the previous fiscal year.

Like other Japanese exporters, Toyota benefits from a weak yen, which raises the value of its overseas revenue when translated into yen. The U.S. dollar has been trading at about 158 Japanese yen, up from 154 yen a year ago.

By region, Toyota’s China vehicle sales have suffered, partly because of surging gasoline prices. Toyota’s sales remained strong in the U.S., while holding up in Japan, its main global markets, as well as Europe.

In Japan, the models that sold well recently included the RAV4, bZ4X and Land Cruiser FJ sport-utility vehicles. In the U.S., the Camry and RAV4 hybrids were popular, according to Toyota. Overall sales in Asia remained flat, but sales grew in Indonesia and Thailand.

Toyota officials said the company mitigated the impact of rising materials prices by optimizing the global supply and maintaining strong sales.

For the first fiscal half, Toyota racked up a 2.2 trillion yen profit, up from nearly 1.8 trillion yen, on 26.96 trillion yen sales, up from 24.6 trillion yen.

Toyota shares jumped in Tokyo trading after the earnings results were announced to about 3,500 yen from about 3,200 yen.

Yuri Kageyama is on Threads: https://www.threads.com/@yurikageyama