The Wall Street Journal (Tokyo) - Mitsubishi Motors Corp. said Monday its profit would rise 28% this fiscal year, becoming the first Japanese car maker to predict profit growth since the March 11 earthquake disrupted production and the strength of the yen undercut export earnings.
Japan's sixth biggest car maker by sales volume forecast a profit of ¥20 billion (about $249 million) for the fiscal year through March, compared with ¥15.62 billion in the previous year.
It said it expected sales to rise 6.6% to ¥1.95 trillion, from ¥1.828 trillion.
The profit forecast was more upbeat than the ¥12.63 billion average estimate of three analysts in a Thomson Reuters survey, and the outlook disclosed Friday by Japan's biggest car maker, Toyota Motor Corp., for a 31% decline during the same period. Toyota was the first Japanese car maker to give a projection for this fiscal year.
The disaster "didn't become a major obstacle to our production," Osamu Masuko, president of Mitsubishi Motors, said.
In April, the first month of this fiscal year, Mitsubishi Motors assembled only around 60% of the cars it had planned to build under targets the auto maker set before the quake struck.
However, it surpassed its target for May by 10% and will likely beat its June target by 15% due to a quicker-than-expected recovery in parts procurement, meaning the company will likely meet 90% of its first-half target set prior to the disaster.
It earlier said it expected to meet just 80% of the previous target.
The maker of the Pajero sport-utility vehicle and the i-MiEV electric car aims to make more vehicles in Japan than previously planned in the second half to make up for the lost volume in the first six months, pushing its annual domestic output slightly up from the past fiscal year.
Improving manufacturing operations at home and a planned 10% growth in overseas production will increase its global production 6% to 1.17 million vehicles this fiscal year, it said.
The robust output target reflects the company's ambitious growth in Thailand and other Southeast Asian countries, where it aims to attract customers with the Triton pickup truck and the Pajero Sport SUV.
The light truck models will help the car maker increase sales in Asean markets by 20% this fiscal year, it said.
Mitsubishi plans to launch some key new models including the lower-priced version of the i-MiEV battery car this summer and its second electric model, the Minicab-MiEV small commercial van.
Mitsubishi will set the price of the i-MiEV so that effective costs will be below ¥2 million, taking into account government subsidies for electric cars. The range of the new model will be shortened to around 120 kilometers on a single charge as fewer batteries will be installed to reduce costs.
The actual cost of the current i-MiEV, which has a range of 160 kilometers, is ¥2.98 million thanks to government subsidies of about ¥1 million a car.
Mitsubishi Motors reports its earnings under Japanese accounting standards.
