Weak Yen Helps Honda’s Annual Profit, Fails to Lift Outlook
- Currency tailwind helped counter Covid, supply disruptions
- Risks seen ahead with war in Ukraine, China lockdowns
Honda Motor Co. CR-V sports utility vehicles bound for shipment at a port in Yokohama, Japan.
Photographer: Toru Hanai/BloombergHonda Motor Co. issued an annual operating profit outlook that fell short of analysts’ projections, reflecting the impact of higher raw material costs and production disruptions caused by war, China’s Covid lockdowns and a persistent global shortage of semiconductors for automobiles.
Operating profit for the fiscal year through March 2023 will be 810 billion yen ($6.3 billion), the Japanese carmaker said in a statement Friday, compared with analysts’ average estimate for 943 billion yen. The outlook comes after Honda topped its own projections for the just-ended fiscal year with profit of 871 billion yen. Its guidance for last year was 800 billion yen, while analysts were estimating 820 billion on average.