Wonder if their US operation will be asking for TARP funds? :p

Link... (http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=081219022424.msq9x3qb&show_article=1)


Toyota to suffer first full-year loss: reports

Japanese auto giant Toyota is likely to suffer its first-ever operating loss in the year to March 2009 due to a stronger yen and a global industry slump, news reports said Friday.

Toyota Motor Corp., which slashed its annual net profit forecast by more than half in November, is expected to downgrade its projections again at a year-end news conference on Monday, the Tokyo Shimbun said.

It would be Toyota's first operating loss since it began releasing earnings figures for the year to March 1941, the Nikkei business daily said.

A Toyota spokeswoman declined comment on the reports, which did not identify their sources or provide figures.

Toyota has for years enjoyed brisk sales and profits as strong interest in its fuel-efficient vehicles put it on course to overtake ailing General Motors as the world's top-selling automaker.

But the Japanese auto giant has since said it is reviewing its expansion plans as the global crisis takes a heavy toll on the industry.

GM and Chrysler -- two of Detroit's Big Three -- are on the verge of collapse, while Japan's second largest automaker Honda Motor Co. this week sharply revised its growth forecasts.

In November, Toyota revised its net profit forecast to 550 billion yen in the current year, down from the 1.25 trillion yen previously projected. That would mark a decline of 68 percent from the previous year.

Toyota also revised its operating profit forecast to 600 billion yen from its earlier estimate of 1,600 billion yen. Sales were newly projected at 25 trillion yen, down from 23 trillion yen forecast earlier.

But the news reports said Toyota would further downgrade its sales and earnings projections as the company was battered by a sharp decline in global auto sales and the yen's continued appreciation against the dollar.

That's insane considering how many Priuses they sold last summer. Granted I live in Eugene Oregon, one of the most green loving tree hugger cities you'll find, but there was a 3 months waiting list to get a Prius! Biking around downtown, it seems like every other car is a Prius, a lot of people didn't even know what they were a year ago. They made some very ill timed moves in building billion dollar Toyota Tacoma plants only to basically have to fold the whole thing up, but they were able to switch one of their truck or SUV plants to tool up for the 2011 Priuses before it was completed (as a matter of fact they are halting construction even though it is 90% completed due to the economic turn down).

My guess here is simply that, while GM is operating at a loss, at least GM has made huge market share gains in China, Europe, South America etc. Toyota's main market is in the US, their hopes and dreams rise and fall with the US economy and they are really undercutting the American auto makers lately on price to the point where they are purposely not making much if anything.

I was reading on CNN.com that Toyota and Honda are actually scared GM could go bankrupt because their suppliers would probably go bankrupt too (seeings they are the same suppliers as the American auto makers) and also because were China and India to buy out American brands and assets. it would give them the perfect leg up they need to out compete Japan using their much cheaper labor, relaxed environmental regulations, and government subsidizing until they can under cut everyone (similar to what Kia has done as it is slowly but surely gaining market share).

Edit: To answer your question, people are so up in arms about the Big 3 bail out, there's not a snow ball's chance in hell Toyota would get any help (I realize you were kidding, but I just felt like answering anyway). Not that they need it, Toyota for the most part does not expand unless it has the equity to do so, they don't consider debt and cash the same thing, something most US citizens and corporations have forgotten (especially Ford, they are up to their ears in debt)

It is great,your opinion is very novelty thanks very much guy!

Just for the record;

Bloomberg is reporting Toyota has recorded its first operating loss in 71 years and Moody's is reconsidering their AAA credit rating.

Link.... (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aKRq3Aj_awt0&refer=home)


Toyota Forecasts Its First Operating Loss in 71 Years

Dec. 22 (Bloomberg) -- Toyota Motor Corp., the world’s second-largest automaker, forecast its first operating loss in 71 years on plummeting demand, prompting Moody’s Investors Service to signal it may downgrade the company’s top-rated debt.

The loss in the year ending March will likely total 150 billion yen ($1.7 billion), compared with a previous forecast for a 600 billion yen operating profit, Toyota said in a statement today. The cut is the automaker’s second as the global recession decimates car demand and the yen strengthens.

Moody’s said it was reviewing the carmaker’s “Aaa” rating on $19 billion of debt following the loss forecast. Toyota President Katsuaki Watanabe has cut contract jobs, production and executive pay including board-members’ bonuses this fiscal year in a bid to offset slumping demand.

“Toyota’s cost-cutting can’t match plummeting sales,” said Koichi Ogawa, chief portfolio manager at Tokyo-based Daiwa SB Investments Ltd., which manages $28 billion. “Everyone is getting hurt with this situation.”

The automaker cut its net income forecast 91 percent to 50 billion yen. The last time Toyota posted an operating loss was in the year ended March 1938, said spokesman Hideaki Homma.
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