Natural disasters hit Toyota profit

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07 February 2012 at 14:06

Flooding in Thailand and last year's tsunami in Japan have hit profits at carmaker Toyota.

As a result of production problems caused by the natural disasters in Asia, the firm said its quarterly profits have dropped by 13.5%.

While a 80.9 billion yen (£0.66 billion) profit was recorded between October and December of last year, this was lower than the 93.6 billion yen (£0.77 billion) profit seen in the corresponding period of 2010.

However, despite its profit decrease, the company said its annual profit forecast has now been increased to 200 billion yen (£1.65 billion) from a previous estimate of 180 billion yen (£1.48 billion).

In addition to the production problems posed by natural disasters, Toyota's senior managing officer, Takahiko Ijichi, indicated that the strong yen has had a negative impact on the company's profits of late.

In the last fiscal year, 408 billion yen (£3.34 billion) was made by Toyota.

Copyright Press Association 2012