Toyota Motor Corp increased its forecast for annual profit on Wednesday, closing in on new records that had been set prior to the financial crisis thanks to a weaker yen and growing sales in the U.S. car market that helped boost earnings sharply.
The bestselling automaker in the world now says it expects a net profit of $16.95 (1.67 trillion yen) billion for its fiscal year ending March 2014, compared to its forecast previously of 1.48 trillion yen.
That would put it just short of its previous record of 1.72 trillion yen in net profit for the fiscal year ended March 2008. That compares to an average forecast by analysts of 1.79 trillion yen.
The Japanese carmaker is the most reliant on exports amongst the three biggest automakers in Japan. It has benefited from the weakening yen that helped boost profits both from its exports and from the conversion of money earned overseas back into its local currency.
The automaker also increased its sales forecast for the U.S. from 2.61 million vehicles to 2.63 million, which will help offset a fall in its sales in Asia that it forecast to be 1.64 million after an original amount of 1.70 million.
The consolidated sales total globally, excluding sales in China, was not changed from its original 9.1 million.
Sales in Thailand were very weak, dropping by 30% during the quarter from ending September 30, as the market began to slow after incentives for first time clients ended in 2013. Thailand is the fourth largest market for Toyota on a per country basis.
Toyota increased its annual outlook for capital expenditure by 2% to 940 billion yen, which was close to 4% of overall revenue. It also kept its forecasted expenses for R&D the same at 900 billion yen.
During the quarter ending September 30, the largest carmaker in the world said its net profit increased by 70%, which was in line with Wall Street analysts.
Its net profit for the quarter was higher than rivals Nissan and Honda, the second and third largest Japanese carmakers respectively.