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Mainichi Daily News
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Toyota's quarterly profit jumps 39 percent; fiscal year profit hits record

Toyota's profit for the January-March quarter jumped 39 percent on solid sales growth as the world's No. 2 automaker marked its sixth straight record fiscal year of booming sales, the company said Wednesday.

Toyota Motor Corp. recorded a net profit of 404.1 billion yen (US$3.6 billion) in the final quarter of fiscal 2005, up from 290.7 billion yen the same quarter the previous year.

Quarterly sales totaled 5.75 trillion yen (US$51.6 billion), up 18 percent from 4.88 trillion yen the same period a year earlier.

With sales booming around the world, Toyota is getting close to overtaking General Motors Corp. as the world's biggest automaker.

Its models' reputation for good mileage has helped Toyota, based in the central Japanese city that has its name, ****** U.S. market share away from struggling GM and Ford Motor Co. at a time when gas prices are soaring.

Toyota's profit for the fiscal year ended March 31 totaled 1.37 trillion yen (US$12.3 billion), up 17 percent from 1.17 trillion yen the previous year, the fourth straight record income for booming Toyota.

Sales for the year surged 13 percent to 21 trillion yen (US$188 billion) from 18.6 trillion yen the previous year.

Toyota, which in the past had not given group income forecasts, said profits are expected to dip slightly by 4.5 percent for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2007, to 1.31 trillion yen (US$11.7 billion) on 22.3 trillion yen (US$200 billion) sales, up 6 percent. (AP)

May 10, 2006