TOKYO, May 8 (Xinhua) -- Japan's Toyota Motor Corp. said Thursday it expects a 34.9 percent year-on-year drop in net profit for fiscal 2025 to 3.1 trillion yen (about 21.6 billion U.S. dollars), due to U.S. higher tariffs and a stronger yen.
Its operating profit is projected at 3.8 trillion yen for the current business year through next March, down 20.8 percent from fiscal 2024, on estimated record sales of 48.5 trillion yen, up 1.0 percent, Toyota said.
For the business year ending in March, the Japanese automaker logged a net profit of 4.77 trillion yen, down 3.6 percent from a year earlier, on record sales of 48.04 trillion yen, up 6.5 percent.
"The estimated impact of U.S. tariffs in April and May 2025 have been tentatively factored in," the world's top-selling automaker said in a statement, noting its operating profit would be reduced by 180 billion yen over the two months through May.
"It is still extremely difficult to forecast the outlook, as the details of the tariffs remain fluid," Toyota President and CEO Koji Sato said at a press conference.
Toyota exports around 500,000 vehicles annually to the United States from Japan, Sato said, indicating cars originally bound for the U.S. may be shipped elsewhere.
"So in the short-term we are adjusting shipments ... while in the medium to long term, we will pursue the local development of products that suit local customers," Sato added.
Meanwhile, the yen's appreciation against the U.S. dollar is another factor weighing on the forecast. For fiscal 2025, the yen's appreciation is estimated to cut Toyota's operating profit by 745 billion yen. ■