Toyota April-June Profit Rewrites Record High

Nagoya, Aug. 4 (Jiji Press)--Toyota Motor Corp. <7203> said Tuesday its group operating profit in April-June rose 9.1 pct from a year earlier to 756,001 million yen, hitting a record high for its fiscal first quarter for the second straight year. Sales grew 9.3 pct to 6,987,648 million yen, hitting a record high for the first time in eight years. Net profit climbed 10.0 pct to 646,394 million yen, marking a record high for the third consecutive year. The Japanese automaker's profits were pushed up by the yen's weakening, though its global vehicle sales fell 5.7 pct to 2,114,000 units due to a slump in regions other than North America and Oceania. Toyota raised its full-year sales projection in both value and volume terms, to 27.8 trillion yen from 27.5 trillion yen and to 8.95 million units from 8.9 million units, expecting growth in North America and Europe. The automaker kept unchanged its full-year operating and net profit estimates, considering economic slowdowns in China and Russia. END