Toyota has surprisingly increased profits thanks to the easing semiconductor shortage. Operating profit jumped 22 percent to 957 billion yen (around 6.8 billion euros) in the third fiscal quarter, the world’s largest automaker announced on Thursday. The collapse of the yen also helped. The Japanese currency fell to a 32-year low in October, giving Toyota the benefit of converting earnings.
The group reiterated its operating profit target of 2.4 trillion yen for the 2022/23 fiscal year ending in March, down nearly a fifth from the previous fiscal year.
In the past nine months of the current fiscal year, Toyota generated a net profit of around 1.9 trillion yen (13.5 billion euros) for the months of April to December. This is a decrease of 18 percent compared to the same period last year. Revenue rose 18 percent to 27.5 trillion yen. In the same period, the group delivered almost 6.5 million vehicles, a good six percent more than in the previous year.
In the calendar year, the group, which also includes the truck manufacturer Hino and the small car specialist Daihatsu, delivered almost 10.5 million vehicles and thus remained the world market leader Volkswagen. “Vehicle sales are very strong, but costs are rising,” said Koji Endo, an analyst at SBI Securities. Toyota got the prices in the USA gradually increased in the second half of the year to compensate. North America is the largest market for the Japanese.
However, Toyota scaled back the production target it had lowered in the fall because of the still shaky supply chains. The group now expects around 9.1 million vehicles in 2022/23. Before that, the carmaker had planned to produce 9.2 million units. For a long time, Toyota had mastered the shortage of parts better than its competitors in Europe and the USA, but had recently been slowed down more. In the presentation of the quarterly figures, the manufacturer of the Prius hybrid car said it was trying to find alternative semiconductors and taking other measures to ensure stable procurement of chips.