May 20 (Bloomberg) -- Toyota Motor Corp., the world’s biggest automaker, said “a slight uptick” in its U.S. sales this month may mark an end to the industry’s worst slump in three decades.

“I think we’ve found the bottom,” Jim Lentz, president of Toyota’s U.S. sales unit, said yesterday in a Bloomberg Television interview in Washington. Still, major improvements are unlikely to happen before next year, he said.

U.S. consumer confidence has returned to pre-credit crunch levels as surging stock markets stoke optimism that the deepest recession in at least five decades is moderating. The decline in the U.S. auto market helped push Chrysler LLC into bankruptcy last month and Detroit-based General Motors Corp. also faces a possible Chapter 11 filing.

“This month will may be the point to see how sales and inventory levels will shift,” said Yoshihiro Okumura, who helps oversee the equivalent of $365 million at Tokyo-based Chiba-gin Asset Management Co. “Things should be improving.”

The economic slowdown and job concerns have caused a 38 percent drop in Toyota’s U.S. sales this year, its worst-ever decline. Toyota’s U.S. plunge contributed to its first annual loss in 59 years and the company has forecast a 550 billion yen ($5.7 billion) net loss for the current fiscal year.

Toyota fell 20 yen, or 0.5 percent, to 3,660 yen at the close of trading on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

Prius, Lexus

A revamped version of the gasoline-electric Prius that goes on sale this month will help the Toyota City, Japan-based company, Lentz said. He spoke after President Barack Obama unveiled new rules raising overall fuel-economy requirements for new vehicles and the first U.S. guidelines aimed at cutting automotive greenhouse gas emissions.

Toyota’s Lexus luxury brand is also seeing some improvement this month, Mark Templin, the brand’s U.S. chief, said in an interview.

“We’re pacing to be substantially up month over month” in May, Templin said May 13 in Newport Coast, California. Lexus inventory has also returned to about a 35-day average, half of what it was at the peak late last year, Templin said.

The Reuters/University of Michigan preliminary index released May 15 found consumer sentiment rose to 67.9 in May from 65.1 in April.

Sales of new vehicles in the world’s largest market are down 37 percent this year, led by GM’s 45 percent plunge and Chrysler’s 46 percent decline. As a result the two U.S. carmakers last week announced plans to shed nearly 2,000 dealers to help cut costs. Ford Motor Co.’s sales have dropped 40 percent.

Honda Motor Co., Japan’s second-largest automaker, had a 32 percent U.S. drop through April, while Tokyo-based Nissan Motor Co. is down 36 percent.

To contact the reporters on this story: Alan Ohnsman in Los Angeles at aohnsman@bloomberg.netGreg Miles in Washington at gmiles1@bloomberg.net;

Last Updated: May 20, 2009 04:50 EDT