Toyota Motor Co.'s quarterly profit fell worse than expected to fall by 25% as rising material costs and chronic shortages of semiconductors and chips led to the company cutting annual production.
According to Arab Net, the company's operating profit in the three months ended September fell to 562.7 billion yen ($3.79 billion), well below the average profit estimate of 772.2 billion yen in a Refinitiv poll of 12 analysts.
Toyota's sales led to a profit of 749.9 billion yen a year ago, and the company's profit was 578.6 billion yen in the first quarter.
The world's largest automaker in terms of sales also warned of the continued difficulty of predicting the future, after it recorded its fourth consecutive quarterly decline in its profits, indicating the strength of the headwinds of activity it is facing.
We are past the worst phase, but... this is not necessarily a situation where we get all the supplies, said Kazunari Kumakura, the group's purchasing manager. I don't know when the chips shortage will end.
The global shortage of auto chips continues, Kumakura said, as chip manufacturers have prioritized supplies destined for electronic goods such as smartphones and computers, while natural disasters, COVID-19 shutdowns and factory disruptions have slowed the recovery of auto chip supplies.
He added that supplies of old-fashioned semiconductors, which currently attract few capital investment, will remain scarce.
