July 28 (Bloomberg) -- Toyota Motor Corp., vying with General Motors Corp. to be the world's largest carmaker, lowered its sales and production forecast for this year as record U.S. gasoline prices erode sales of trucks and sport-utility vehicles.

The company expects to sell 9.5 million vehicles worldwide in the 12 months ending Dec. 31, down 350,000 units, or 3.6 percent, from its initial estimate of 9.85 million, it said in a statement today. Toyota sold 9.37 million last year.

U.S. gasoline prices, which topped $4 a gallon last month, dented demand for pickups and sport-utility vehicles built by Toyota, GM and other automakers. That prompted Toyota to suspend production of Tundra pickups and Sequoia SUVs for three months from August. The company cut its U.S. sales forecast for the Toyota and Lexus brands by 7.6 percent.

``The current market is hurting everyone,'' said Atsushi Kawai, a senior analyst at Mizuho Investors Securities Co. in Tokyo, who has a ``neutral'' rating on the stock. ``What's impressive is that even with the severe environment in the U.S. Toyota is still saying it will beat last year's sales.''

U.S. sales of Toyota and Lexus brands may total 2.44 million vehicles, compared with its previous estimate of 2.64 million, the company said.

The Toyota City, Japan-based automaker also cut its production estimate by 4.5 percent to 9.5 million vehicles for this year. It would be unchanged from last year.

Toyota fell 1.2 percent to 4,880 yen as of the close of trading on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

U.S. Sales

Toyota's sales goal includes its Daihatsu Motor Co. and Hino Motors Ltd. subsidiaries. The two companies' sales account for about 10 percent of the carmaker's estimate.

Excluding the two units, Toyota lowered its sales forecast by 3.8 percent to 8.5 million vehicles in 2008 because demand will also be lower-than-expected in Europe, Japan and Latin America.

Domestic sales may fall about 2 percent to 1.55 million vehicles, the company said. Toyota expects European sales to decline 4 percent to 1.19 million. In the Middle East, the only region where Toyota raised its sales forecast, the company expects sales to gain 23 percent to 590,000 units.

The carmaker's sales in the U.S., the world's largest auto market, fell by 6.8 percent in the first half of this year, led by a 13 percent drop in demand for its light trucks.

G.M., Ford

Detroit-based GM fell further behind Toyota during the second quarter. Toyota posted a preliminary increase of 1.8 percent to about 2.41 million in the three months ended June 30 as demand rose in China and Russia. GM's sales dropped 5 percent to 2.29 million vehicles.

The results boosted Toyota's first-half lead to 278,000, diminishing chances that GM will extend its 77-year reign as the world's largest automaker. Last year, GM trailed in the first quarter and narrowed the gap in the second before topping Toyota by 3,100 sales for the year.

Toyota's U.S. rivals GM and Ford Motor Co. plan to shut factories and cut jobs. GM, which announced plans to close four truck plants and make more cars in June, may also cut thousands of additional factory jobs as it further trims production capacity, the company said July 15.

Ford, the world's third-largest automaker, on July 24 posted a record quarterly loss of $8.7 billion and accelerated a conversion to fuel-efficient vehicles to wean itself from money- losing trucks. Ford will convert three North American truck factories to build small cars.

Toyota's earnings may also fall because of a stronger yen and falling U.S. sales where sales are heading for the first annual decline since 1995.

Net income at Toyota for the three months ended June 30 may have fallen 33 percent to 330.6 billion yen ($3.06 billion) from a year ago, according to the median estimate of six analysts compiled by Bloomberg. The company will report its earnings on Aug. 7.

To contact the reporter on this story: Naoko Fujimura in Tokyo at nfujimura@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: July 28, 2008 04:36 EDT