Toyota profit plummets despite solid sales

Toyota says its fiscal third-quarter profit plunged to ¥180.9-billion ($12.6 billion), about a fifth of what the Japanese automaker earned the previous year, despite relatively solid sales.

Toyota Motor Corp. said on Wednesday that its October-December profit in 2017 had totalled ¥941.8 billion, helped by perks from US tax reforms.

Lowering profits

Toyota said that profit for the latest quarter was also hurt by unrealized gains and losses in equity securities.

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Quarterly sales totalled ¥7.8 trillion ($71 billion), up nearly 3% from 7.6 trillion the previous year.

Toyota lowered its profit for the fiscal year through March to ¥1.87 trillion ($17 billion), down from ¥2.5 trillion racked up the previous fiscal year, and below its earlier projection for ¥2.3 trillion ($21 billion) profit.