 "Honda")
Japan's Honda Motor Co forecast a 2.8 per cent rise in operating profit for this financial year, after it exceeded analysts' estimates in the fourth quarter as strong sales growth in the United States offset a decline in China.
Japan's second-largest automaker by volume forecast full-year operating profit would rise to 1.42 trillion yen ($9.13 billion) compared with an average profit estimate of 1.39 trillion yen in a poll of 22 analysts by LSEG.
Operating profit for the three months to March 31 grew more than six-fold from a year earlier to 305.6 billion yen, well ahead of the 248.3 billion yen average expected by nine analysts.
The automaker posted a 17 per cent sales rise in its biggest overseas market, the US, to about 378,000 vehicles over that period. However, its sales in China fell by more than 6 per cent in January-March to about 207,000 vehicles.
In China, the world's biggest auto market, Honda is among Japanese car brands that have struggled against more nimble and faster-moving local rivals that have attracted Chinese drivers with low-cost, technology-loaded electric vehicles.
Honda, which remains a latecomer to EVs, said last month it plans to build an EV production base in Ontario, Canada and launch six EV models branded Ye in China by 2027.
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
