I wonder if the USD will begin to feel the heat...
dailynews.yahoo.com
Tuesday February 5 8:28 AM ET
Honda Earnings Increase 74 Percent
TOKYO (AP) - Honda Motor Co. (news - web sites)'s earnings jumped nearly 74 percent in the latest quarter, on robust sales at home and in the United States, cost-cutting efforts and the yen's recent weakness.
Honda's sharp growth in profits reported Tuesday continued despite worries about consumer spending worldwide following the Sept. 11 attacks.
The Japanese carmaker earned 82.2 billion yen ($620 million) in the October-December quarter, up from 47.3 billion yen a year earlier.
Sales revenue rose 11 percent to 1.75 trillion yen ($13.2 billion) for is third fiscal quarter, up from 1.57 trillion yen in the year-ago period.
Honda sold 652,000 vehicles worldwide during the quarter, up 1.2 percent from 644,000 a year ago.
Improved sales of motorcycles and cars and cost-cutting were the main reasons for rising profits, Honda said. But currency rates also moved in the company's favor.
The recent weakening of the yen helps Japanese exporters like Honda by increasing the value of sales earned overseas. If the yen had remained unchanged from the same period last year, quarterly sales would have been 3 percent higher, Honda's senior managing director, Satoshi Aoki, said.
Honda's best-selling models in Japan were the Fit compact car and the Step Wagon minivan. Sales in North America - the world's biggest auto market - were led by the Accord sedan and Odyssey minivan.
In advance of the earnings report, Honda's shares fell 4.48 percent to 5,120 yen ($38) in Tokyo trading. The earnings report was released after the close of the market. Honda is the only one of Japan's five major carmakers to disclose quarterly earnings.
For the first three quarters of its fiscal year, Honda earned 256 billion yen ($1.93 billion), up from 169.2 billion yean a year ago. Sales were 5.26 trillion yen ($39.7 billion), up from 4.63 trillion yean a year ago.
The company is forecasting profit of 330 billion yen ($2.5 billion) for the fiscal year ending in March 2002, up 42 percent from fiscal 2000, on revenue of 7.2 trillion yen ($54 billion), up 10.9 percent.
Worldwide, Honda plans to sell about 2.68 million vehicles for the fiscal year. Honda vice president, Koichi Amemiya, said unit sales at home may exceed forecasts for 880,000 this year, but European sales will probably fall short of the 200,000-vehicle estimate. |
