Honda 3Q profit doubles, sales get weak yen boost

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TOKYO (AP) — Honda’s quarterly profit doubled from a year earlier as sales got a big perk from a weak
yen.
Honda
Motor Co. reported on Friday a 160.7 billion yen ($1.58 billion) net
profit for the October-December fiscal third quarter, up from 77.4
billion yen the year before.
The maker of the Fit subcompact,
Odyssey minivan and Asimo humanoid, posted a 25 percent jump in
quarterly sales to 3.02 trillion yen ($29.6 billion).
A favorable
exchange rate helped Honda’s fortunes. The dollar has been trading above
100 yen compared with about 80 yen a year earlier. A weak yen helps
lift the value of Japanese exporters’ overseas revenue.
About 425
billion yen ($4.2 billion) of Honda’s sales and other operating revenue
was due just to a favorable currency for the quarter.
Honda stuck
to its previous forecast for a 580 billion yen ($5.7 billion) profit for
the fiscal year through March 31, 2014, up 58 percent from the previous
fiscal year, on 12.1 trillion yen ($118.6 billion) sales, up nearly 23
percent.
Tokyo-based Honda, like other Japanese automakers, has
bounced back from troubled years, such as the 2011 tsunami and
earthquake in northeastern Japan that devastated parts suppliers and
disrupted production.
Honda was also hurt by flooding in Thailand
in late 2012. Anti-Japanese sentiment that flared up in China eroded
sales in that key growth market last year.
Honda said its results
were helped by cost cuts and the launch of new models, in addition to
the help it got from a weak yen. It sales grew in North America, Japan
and the rest of Asia.
During the quarter, Honda sold 1.08 million
vehicles around the world, up nearly 10 percent from a year earlier. It
also reported an 11 percent jump in motorcycle sales.
It expects
to sell nearly 4.39 million vehicles for the fiscal year through March
2014, up 9 percent from 4.01 million in the previous year. Although
upbeat, that’s lower than its earlier forecast of 4.43 million vehicles,
as it expects fewer sales in North America, Asia and Europe.
For
the nine months through December 2013, Honda’s net profit gained nearly
39 percent to 403.5 billion yen ($4 billion). Nine-month sales soared 23
percent to 8.75 trillion yen ($86 billion).
Toyota Motor Corp., the world’s top automaker, reports earnings Tuesday, while Nissan Motor Co. reports
Feb. 10.
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Follow Yuri Kageyama on Twitter at twitter.com/yurikageyama
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