Toyota forecasts profit rebound amid chip shortage

Japan’s Toyota Motor Corp announced a $2.3 billion share buyback. And also, they have forecasted that the annual profit will rise by 14% to pre-pandemic levels. It has shrugged off the chip shortage that has hurt other car makers.

In united states, this world’s biggest automaker by vehicle sales expects renewed demand. It is to drive that recovery from pandemic situation. Overall sales are forecasted to grow 6.4% to 10.55 million vehicles for the year.

After the results, the shares of Toyota reversed course to rise 2.1%. This contrasts with a 10% tumble for smaller rival Nissan whose guidance disappointed investors. Following the Fukushima earthquake in 2011, Toyota has worked on improving its supply chain management to mitigate the impact of natural disasters and this effort had also paid off. This was stated by CFO Kenta Kon.

Kenta also said that they are now able to make assessments of alternative products in a speedy matter. That is one of the factors of them being able to mitigate the impact of semiconductor supply shortages. Toyota, which is famous for its just-in-time inventory management and also the maker of the RAV4 SUV crossover and Prius hybrid vehicles, said that 8 million of its vehicles would be electrified annually by 2030, or around 80% of its current vehicle sales.

Toyota almost doubled its fourth-quarter operating profit to 689.8 billion yen. Nissan said that it expects to break even this business year, defying expectations for a return to profitability, as the global chip shortage and commodity price hike curb the car maker’s recovery from a record annual operating loss.