Peter T. Leach, Senior Editor | Dec 12, 2011 11:08AM EST
Toyota cut its profit forecast by more than half after Thailand’s worst floods in almost 70 years disrupted output of Camry and Prius vehicles.
Disruptions from the Thai floods will probably cause 260,000 vehicles in lost production, or 3.4 percent of the previous annual target, Toyota said. By comparison, Nissan estimates lost production of 60,000 units, or 1.3 percent of its annual target.
Shortages of auto parts caused by Thailand’s floods disrupted production for Japanese automakers worldwide, compounding the challenge from the record earthquake and the yen’s surge. Toyota said Sunday the Thai floods will cut earnings by $1.55 billion. Net income will fall 56 percent to $2.3 billion in the 12 months ending March 31, Toyota said.
The Thai floods created a second wave of factory disruptions for Japanese carmakers such as Toyota, which had taken six months to restore production hobbled by Japan’s March 11 natural disaster.
Toyota probably lost more output than any other carmaker because of the floods, according to Masatoshi Nishimoto, a Tokyo-based senior manager at research firm IHS Automotive.
He told Bloomberg News that Toyota may not be able to make up for lost production of models such as the Vigo SUV until September because the company had procured about 90 percent of the vehicle’s parts from Thailand and won’t easily find alternate suppliers.
-- Contact Peter T. Leach at pleach@joc.com. Follow him on Twitter @petertleach.