Here’s an interesting bit of information. Toyota’s profits have dropped sharply:
HONG KONG –
Toyota Motor stunned markets on Thursday by posting an unexpected 28% drop in fourth-quarter profit and forecasting a decline of similar magnitude in annual net profit in the current fiscal year.
Toyota, the world’s second-largest automaker by production volume after General Motors (nyse: GM – news – people ), reported Thursday that its net profit fell 28%, to 316.8 billion yen ($3.0 billion), for the three months ended in March, down from 440.1 billion yen ($4.2 billion) in the comparable period the previous year. The January-March quarterly net profit figure fell below an average estimate of 342.3 billion yen ($3.3 billion) from 20 brokerages surveyed by Reuters Estimates, thanks to a stronger yen and weaker sales in the key North American market.
The carmaker’s operating profit, excluding the results of its Chinese joint ventures, slid 30.5%, to 396.7 billion yen ($3.8 billion), while revenues rose 3.8%, to 6.6 trillion yen ($63.2 billion)
Note that Toyota is the world’s leading manufacturer of hybrids, more of its Priuses having been sold than all other hybrids combined. Despite sharp increases in hybrid sales of the last several years they still consitute a miniscule portion of total vehicle sales. When the price of oil increases its easier and more economical to drive less than to go out and buy a hybrid, I guess.
Toyota attributes much of the drop to the slowing U. S. economy but rising commodity prices have increased their costs, too. If Toyota”s profits are falling, I can only guess at what’s happening at the embattled GM and Ford. IIRC GM has been posting losses and Ford a very small profit. Expect conditions to look even worse in the auto industry, especially as Chinese and Indian-made vehicles start coming into developing markets.
