Toyota posts first ever loss

[Naveed Yaseen]

TOKYO: Toyota Motor, the world’s top automaker, announced on Friday a 4.4-billion dollar annual loss, its first ever, and warned it would plunge deeper into the red as car sales collapse during the recession.

Toyota lost 765.8 billion yen (7.7 billion dollars) in the quarter to March alone, even more than General Motors, as it idled plants to ride out the biggest crisis in its more than 70-year history.

Company president Katsuaki Watanabe blamed the weak performance on a slump in vehicle sales, particularly in the United States and Europe, as well as a stronger yen and higher raw material costs.

For the business year to March, the group made a net loss of 436.9 billion yen (4.4 billion dollars), worse than its own forecast and a dramatic turnaround from the previous year’s record profit of 1.72 trillion yen.

It is the first time that Toyota has finished a year in the red since it started publishing results in 1941.

The company, which unseated General Motors last year as the world’s top selling automaker, logged an annual operating loss of 461.0 billion yen, against a year-earlier profit of 2.27 trillion yen. Revenue slid 21.9 per cent.

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