Toyota has record 9-month sales but profit drops

Toyota Motor says it posted record sales for the April-to-December period, helped by the weak yen. But net profit was dragged down by high raw material costs.

The Japanese automotive giant said Thursday group sales came to 27.4 trillion yen, or about 209 billion dollars in the 9-month period. That is up 18 percent from a year earlier in yen terms.

Sales increased in North America and Southeast Asia.

But net profit dropped 18 percent to slightly less than 1.9 trillion yen, or about 14 billion dollars, marking the first decline in two years.

Executives say procurement and component costs rose due to higher prices of raw materials. They also cited losses caused by Toyota's withdrawal from Russia as contributing to the profit decline.

Toyota trimmed its production forecast for this fiscal year through March to 9.1 million units, a cut of a 100-thousand, blaming a shortage of semiconductors.

Source: https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20230209_30/