Business & Economy

Toyota’s net profit fell 74.3 pct between April and June due to COVID-19

Tokyo, Aug 6 (efe-epa).- Japanese automaker Toyota’s net profit between April and June fell by 74.3 percent compared to the same period in 2019, the company announced Thursday, yet another example of the global crisis in the automotive industry as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

Toyota, one of the world’s largest car manufacturers, announced the results of the first quarter of the financial year, which reflected the impact of the sharp drop in demand due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Between April and June, Toyota recorded a net profit of 158.843 billion yen ($1.51 billion), well below the 619.131 billion yen it recorded during the same period last year.

Sales in the period decreased by 40.4 percent to 4.60 trillion yen while operating profit almost disappeared, plunging 98.1 percent to 13.92 billion yen.

“We succeeded in securing operating income despite a drastic decline in vehicle sales,” the company said in a statement.

Toyota said that in the first quarter of the fiscal year the total number of vehicles sold fell by 50 percent to 1.16 million units.

The sharp decline was particularly noticeable in key regions: while, in the same period last year, North America was the main market for the Japanese firm, between April and June this year, sales there plummeted by 61.7 percent to 285,000 vehicles.

In fact, Japan, which has also been affected by the pandemic but to a lesser degree than other areas, displaced North America as the main market for Toyota, with only a 30.6 percent reduction in the number of vehicles sold, to 385,000 units.

Toyota’s operating profit in all regions declined, with only Japan and Asia recording a small profit, 82 percent lower than that recorded between April and June of 2019 in the case of the former and 60 percent less in the latter.

Toyota estimates that its net profit in the current fiscal year will decline by 64.1 percent over the previous fiscal year to 730 billion yen. EFE-EPA

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