Carhaulers, you'd better start learning how to tie down Toyotas!
This is from Reuters:
TOKYO, Nov 7 (Reuters) - Toyota Motor Corp. (7203.T: Quote, NEWS, Research) reported a 44 percent rise in quarterly operating profit on Tuesday as healthy sales, cost cuts and a soft yen offset higher raw materials prices, and it lifted its forecasts for the full year.
Operating profit at the world's second-biggest auto maker totalled 581.0 billion yen ($4.92 billion) for the July-September second quarter, outpacing an average estimate of 527.6 billion yen in a survey of six brokers by Reuters Estimates.
Net profit jumped 34 percent to 405.7 billion yen, compared with a market estimate for 372.5 billion yen.
Toyota, worth $215 billion and the world's most valuable car maker, now expects a full-year operating profit of 2.2 trillion yen and net profit of 1.55 trillion yen. Three months ago, it projected a record group operating profit of 1.9 trillion yen and net profit of 1.31 trillion yen for the year to March 2007.
Japan's top auto maker has been expanding rapidly in North America and Europe with popular cars such as the Camry sedan and Yaris subcompact, leaving big local brands struggling to defend market share.
Toyota shares gained 7.2 percent in July-September, in line with the transport sector subindex's (.ITEQP.T: Quote, NEWS, Research) 6.9 percent rise.
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