Automaker’s profit drops

Tuesday, May 10, 2005 | 9:41 a.m.

Toyota Motor Corp., the world's second-largest automaker by sales, had its biggest profit decline in seven quarters as higher steel and oil prices boosted costs and a weaker dollar reduced earnings from the United States.

Net income fell 17 percent to 291 billion yen ($2.75 billion) in the three months ended March, from 351 billion yen a year earlier, the automaker said today in a statement. The company, based in central Japan's Toyota City, was expected by analysts surveyed by Bloomberg to earn 302 billion yen. Sales rose 4.2 percent to 4.88 trillion yen.

Higher raw material prices and a 2.5 percent increase in the yen against the dollar cut gains from record U.S. sales of Prius gas-electric vehicles, Scion cars and Tundra pickup trucks. President Fujio Cho's efforts to expand overseas plants and cut costs helped Toyota increase earnings for the full year.

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