Tokyo, 14 February, /AJMEDIA/
Honda Motor Co said Thursday that it booked a net profit of 805.26 billion yen in the nine months through December, down 7.4 percent from the previous year against a backdrop of sluggish sales in China.
Honda said its sales in the period rose 8.9 percent from a year earlier to 16.33 trillion yen, buoyed by strong motorcycle sales, while operating profit grew 5.9 percent to 1.14 trillion yen.
Japan’s second-biggest automaker continued to face intensifying price competition from global EV makers, with its China sales dropping 34.5 percent year-on-year to 264,000 units in the October-December period.
In the same three months, Honda’s domestic auto sales fell 10 percent to 153,000 units, while they increased 8.8 percent to 367,000 in the United States.
“The reality is that we are not selling well in China,” Executive Vice President Shinji Aoyama said at a press conference, vowing to boost sales by introducing new battery-powered models in the neighboring country.
Honda’s global motorcycle sales remained strong, leading it to raise its full-year outlook by 400,000 units to a record 20.6 million through March. Meanwhile, its automobile sales forecast was lowered by 50,000 units to 3.75 million for the period.
Aoyama said Honda is cautiously monitoring U.S. President Donald Trump’s policy moves after he delayed the imposition of 25 percent tariffs on Canadian and Mexican goods for 30 days on Feb 3, just before they were set to take effect.
Honda is preparing various response measures, such as shifting manufacturing to the United States, if the levies are implemented, at a time when over one-third of vehicles sold there are imported from Mexico and Canada, Aoyama added.
For the business year through March, it raised its sales outlook to 21.6 trillion yen from the previous estimate of 21 trillion yen. It maintained its net profit projection at 950 billion yen and its operating profit forecast at 1.42 trillion yen.
Honda’s latest earnings report came the same day it formally agreed with Nissan Motor Co to scrap their realignment plan, which could have made them the world’s third-largest auto group by volume.
The decision will have “no impact on the financial results” of the two companies, Honda said in a separate statement on Thursday.
