Honda reports 23% profit rise despite pandemic
07 November, 2020
Honda Motor Co reported Friday that its profit rose 23% within the last quarter, despite a pandemic which has slammed businesses all over the world.
Honda said its July-September profit was 240.9 billion yen ($2.3 billion), up from 196.5 billion yen a year earlier, as the auto market recovered in some elements of the world.
Honda said it completed aggressive cost cuts that involved a “fundamental review” of its operations. The situation was also bettering from earlier this season, when lockdowns and other problems linked to COVID-19 caused disruptions of some production and a listing crunch.
Quarterly sales slipped to 3.65 trillion yen ($35 billion) from 3.73 trillion yen the same period a year earlier.
Honda, which makes the Accord sedan and Asimo robot, warned that uncertainty remains amid rising COVID-19 cases. However the company stressed it had been managing to cling to profitability.
Reflecting that upbeat mood, Honda raised its profit forecast for the fiscal year through March 2021 to 390 billion yen ($3.8 billion) from a youthful projection for 165 billion yen ($1.6 billion).
The latest forecast continues to be less than the 455.7 billion yen profit Honda booked in the last fiscal year.
Honda sold slightly more vehicles in the quarter through September at 1.25 million vehicles, compared to 1.24 million vehicles in the same amount of 2019.
But it sold fewer motorcycles at practically 4.5 million motorcycles, down from practically 5.1 million.
Kohei Takeuchi, a senior Honda manager, said a lot of the damage to sales likely originated from the pandemic, though he hesitated at fault the entire decline on the pandemic.
Executive Vice President Seiji Kuraishi told reporters Honda is bullish on shifting its lineup to ecological models to maintain with the global efforts to curb carbon emissions and global warming.
Source: japantoday.com
TAG(s):