10 automakers forecast losses to triple to 1 trillion yenBY HIROBUMI OHINATA AND SOICHI FURUYA
THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
2009/5/14
Japan's 10 automakers suffered a combined operating loss of 320 billion yen in fiscal 2008 due to plummeting sales worldwide and the high yen--and the situation is expected to grow even worse.
Their recently released annual reports marked a sharp contrast from the previous year, when the automakers collectively reported about 4.7 trillion yen in operating profits on a consolidated basis.
The automakers have also forecast a collective operating loss of 1 trillion yen for this fiscal year, according to their reports for fiscal 2008, which ended in March.
In fiscal 2008, seven of the 10 automakers reported net losses, including industry leader Toyota Motor Corp. All seven companies posted net profits in fiscal 2007.
Only Daihatsu Motor Co., Suzuki Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co., which all produce minivehicles and motorcycles, managed to post net profits last fiscal year.
All automakers are adjusting their inventories in hopes for a recovery in the latter half of this fiscal year. However, their fortunes largely depend on a rebound in sales in Europe, the United States and Japan. And so far, there are no clear indications of that happening soon.
"We've begun to see the bottom, but there's no sign of recovery," Osamu Masuko, president of Mitsubishi Motors Corp., said.
In fiscal 2007, Toyota's operating profit was a record 2.27 trillion yen.
However, the auto giant suffered a 461-billion-yen operating loss in fiscal 2008, as consolidated sales dropped by 1.346 million units from the previous year and the Japanese currency appreciated.
In the January-March quarter, during which Toyota produced 45.1 percent fewer vehicles around the world compared with the same quarter last year, its net loss was 765.8 billion yen.
The figure exceeded the loss of $5.975 billion (about 590 billion yen) of ailing General Motors Corp.
Toyota has forecast an operating loss of 850 billion yen for fiscal 2009.
Nissan Motor Co. also suffered an operating loss, of 137.9 billion yen, in fiscal 2008.
Mazda Motor Corp., Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd. and Hino Motors Ltd. joined Nissan in seeing their operating profits turn into operating losses last fiscal year.
Five other automakers--Honda, Suzuki, Daihatsu, Mitsubishi Motors and Isuzu Motors Ltd.--maintained operating profits.
In fiscal 2008, the 10 companies sold about 2.5 million fewer vehicles than in fiscal 2007. Suzuki alone in fiscal 2008 sold 2.3 million vehicles.
As a result of production cuts, more than 30,000 non-regular workers in the auto industry lost their jobs in Japan.
For fiscal 2009, global sales by the 10 automakers are expected to drop further by about 2 million units.
For the first half of fiscal 2009, only Suzuki and Daihatsu expect to operate in the black.
Although all of the automakers expect to do better in the second half of the fiscal year, the majority view in the industry is that a full-scale recovery will not arrive until at least fiscal 2010.(IHT/Asahi: May 14,2009)
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