Toyota's global output tops 10 mln units in 2013, record profits expected

Toyota Motor Corp. said Wednesday its global output of vehicles in 2013 stood at 10.12 million units, making it the first automaker to produce more than 10 million vehicles in a record-breaking year for the group. The Aichi Prefecture-based automaker said that due to enhanced production, the number of vehicles produced by its group automakers, including Daihatsu Motor Co. and Hino Motors Ltd., topped the 10 million mark for the year, rising 2.1 percent from the previous year to mark a new industry record. With Toyota's overseas output jumping 5.6 percent to 5.54 million vehicles in the recording year, marking the second straight year of increase, the automaker said that robust production in North America and China helped pare falling output in its Indian and Indonesian markets. Production in Toyota's domestic market has also declined, according to the automaker, with output in Japan dropping 3.9 percent to 3.36 million units in 2013, although still above the key 3 million units threshold the company had been aiming for, it said. The group also announced that its sales in 2013 increased 2.4 percent to 9.98 million vehicles and is eyeing a global sales increase of 4 percent on a 3 percent production rise in 2014. The world's largest automaker is also set to post a record full- year operating profit for the current business year, at more than its 2007 record of 2.27 trillion yen, marking the first time the auto giant has exceed the 2 trillion yen mark in six years. Despite the global economic downturn in 2008, a number of global recalls on some of its most popular models and supply chain issues stemming from the earthquake and tsunami disaster here in 2011, the world's most profitable automaker is also expected to announce it quadrupled its profits for the third-quarter, on increased demand in the United States and China, and owing to a weakening yen that has seen the firm's overseas profits boosted when repatriated.