Toyota improves forecast for year, posts operating profit for quarter
- Source: Xinhua
- [22:21 February 04 2010]
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Japanese automaker Toyota on Thursday was upbeat about its forecast for the current business year, despite a growing crisis that has seen millions of its cars have to be recalled over faults that could cause accidents.
The automaker said that in the October to December quarter it had made a profit of 189 billion yen (2.1 billion dollars).
It also said that over the course of the year it expects to make a 80 billion yen (879 million dollars) profit after earlier predicting a 350 billion yen (3.85 billion dollars) loss.
Earlier in the day, the government asked the auto giant to thoroughly investigate complaints into its cars that had been made in Japan.
Mizuho Fukushima, the minister in charge of consumer affairs said, ''we want to coordinate with the ministry of land, infrastructure, transport and tourism to come up with ways to deal with the matter.'' Fukushima had met Toyota's managing officer Mitsuru Takada earlier in the day, and urged him to investigate what had gone wrong in the cars and come up with measures to prevent panic in Toyota users.
On Wednesday the transport ministry announced that it had received 14 complaints about Toyota brake faults since last year.
The automaker has taken a battering in 2010, with recalls that started in the United States spreading worldwide. So far, the company has indicated that more than 8 million vehicles will have to be sent back to plants for repairs, doing serious damage to the automaker's reputation.
Through the economic downturn, Toyota managed to gain market share in the United States and gain fans across the globe for its hybrid cars, which appeal to more environmentally conscious consumers at a time when fears about global warming are on the rise. The momentum the company gained, however, may be lost.
Results released Wednesday showed sales of Toyotas were down 15. 8 percent in the United States in January. Making matters worse, U. S. transport secretary Ray LaHood urged drivers of the models that have been recalled to stop driving them immediately, sending shares in the company down by 7 percent, according to media reports.
