Mitsubishi offsets yen with cost cuts to boost profit

According to Khabarkhodro,Mitsubishi Motors has boosted full year net profit 53% to JPY23.9bn and operating profit up 58% to JPY 63.7bn on sales off 1% to JPY1.8 trillion. MMC blamed that on a drop in wholesale volume and the negative impact of the strong yen.

Improvements in model mix, together with other material and other cost reductions aided the profit rises.

Global unit sales volume for the fiscal year to 31 March 2012 inched up 1% (14,000 cars) to totaled 1,001,000 units.

Japanese sales dipped 7% to 152,000 units while North America was up 13% to 106,000 units.

In Europe, although year-on-year sales in western European markets decreased due to slowing demand, the recovering Russian market offset this drop so regional sales volume was flat at 218,000 units.

Fiscal global sales volume is forecast up 9% to 1,088,000 units for fiscal 2012.

MMC expects net sales of JPY1.99 trillion, up 10%, a 10% rise in operating profit to JPY70bn yen and net profit of JPY25bn, up 5%.