Honda raises forecast, avoids loss for first half Sacramento Bee
Japanese regulation incentives for green cars and strong sales in China helped Honda Motor Co. avoid red ink for the first half and up its full year profit forecast.Japan's No. 2 automaker said Tuesday it now expects a net profit for the budgetary year ending March of 155 billion yen ($1.7 billion), nearly four times its incipient outlook for a 40 billion yen profit.
Hit by a strong yen and weak global auto market, net profit for the July-September lodgings fell 56.2 percent from a year earlier to 54.0 billion yen ($587.0 million) but was outstrip than expected. For the first half, the automaker booked a net profit of 61.5 billion yen compared with its earlier protrusion for a 10 billion yen loss.
"The numbers were surprising," said Yoshihiro Okumura, auto analyst with Chiba-gin Asset Directorate. "The better vehicle sales numbers are producing results."
He said a bigger fall in profit was avoided by offensively sales in Japan, driven by green incentives, and good sales numbers in Asia.