TOKYO- Honda just announced that the operating profit doubled after the company recovered from last year’s natural disaster.
The year ahead is predicted to have a nearly tripling operating profit. The Asian sales are now surging, while the company registered a boost of its sales on the American market too. The company released a report that was offering details regarding the operating profit. The January-March number is of $1.4 billion (118.98 billion yen), a raise from the last year’s 46.21 billion yen. The net profit, which also includes the sales on the Chinese market, is of 60.7%, another rise from last year’s 44.5 billion yen to 71.59 billion yen.
The third biggest Japanese automaker registered the end of a five quarter decline that resulted from the last year’s natural disasters, the yen’s strength, as well as the reputation crisis that appeared on the American market, the company’s key client.
Unfortunately for Honda, the company registered bigger damage than Toyota and Nissan, even though all three companies suffered because of Thailand and Japan’s natural disasters. Both Toyota and Nissan managed to get their supply chain in order faster than Honda and the company also restarted the Thai car plant work at the end of 2012 March, after a six months break that resulted from the floods that affected Thailand in October 2011.
Tetsuo Iwamura, Honda Executive Vice President says that the company’s goal is now to recover a 10% U.S. market share, as the American market is the company’s most important and profitable client. Iwamura said in the news conference that the company has predicted to release 14.3 million vehicles on the American market, which is an important rise from 2011’s 13.5 million vehicles.
Iwamura also said that a recovery has been registered on the North American market. However, the company is now also directing its attention towards new Asian market segments.
The company’s forecast for 2012 and 2013 is a global sales jump to 38.4%. Next year’s March has an operating profit forecasted at 620 billion yen ($7.7 billion).
Honda has also announced some minor changes to the newly released Honda Civic, as result of the fact that critics panned the model.
Also, Mazda Motor Corp. reported today an operating loss of 38.72 billion yen for last year, while this year registered 23.84 billion profit. Mazda is the fifth biggest automaker in Japan, but the company is fighting against the strong exposure to the yen’s strength.
