Stronger Yen Could Slow Profits for Japanese Carmakers
- Foreign exchange swings drag on Honda, Mazda earnings
- Yen threatens automakers' four-year streak of profit gains
Toyota Motor Corp. workers assemble a Mirai fuel-cell vehicle on the production line of the company's Motomachi plant in Toyota, Aichi Prefecture, Japan, on Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2015. President Akio Toyoda was at the factory to formally mark the roll out of a car named after the Japanese word for 'future.' The Mirai, selling for 7.24 million yen, represents Toyota's bet that the emissions-free cars of the future will run on hydrogen.
Photographer: Tomohiro Ohsumi/BloombergJapanese automakers may have run out of the fuel that’s driven profits higher for four years: the weaker yen.
Toyota Motor Corp. and Japan’s six other automakers may combine to earn 4.55 trillion yen ($40 billion) in the fiscal year through March 2017, according to analysts estimates compiled by Bloomberg. That’s a 5.5 percent increase from what analysts are projecting for the period ending next month, and would be the slowest pace of growth in five years.