TOKYO, Japan -Top-selling automaker Toyota said Wednesday that its full-year net profit beat expectations and projected better sales and revenue for the year ahead as supply chain disruptions ease.
The Japanese firm reported 2.45 trillion yen ($18.12 billion) in net profit for the fiscal year, down 14 percent from a year earlier but still beating its projections of 2.36 trillion yen.
It said it expects full-year net profit to increase five percent for the year ahead to 2.58 trillion yen on “improvements in semiconductor supply and the efforts of production sites”.
The auto titan retained its top-selling crown for the third year in a row in 2022, but like much of the industry has battled pandemic headwinds and the effects of a global chip shortage.
“In a word, it was a very tough year for us to produce and deliver vehicles to our customers,” CEO Koji Sato told reporters.
The company cited everything from natural disasters to the chip crisis for production constraints over the last fiscal year and acknowledged “soaring materials prices” had weighed on the bottom line.
It said it managed to beat its forecast in part due to foreign exchange, but also thanks to the efforts of production sites and dealers, which helped increase year-on-year sales volume across all Toyota’s regions.
Toyota sold more than 10.5 million cars worldwide in the last financial year, including those made by its subsidiaries like Hino Motors and Daihatsu, and is projecting a massive jump to 11.4 million for the fiscal year ahead.
“We expect growth in all regions,” chief financial officer Yoichi Miyazaki said.
“For the immediate term, it is not all normal yet. But our ability to manage semiconductor supply has significantly improved.”
The firm’s stock price jumped on the earnings result, ending up 0.78 percent to 1,931.5 yen despite Tokyo shares overall ending the day lower.
