A woman passes before Japanese auto giant Honda Motor's vehicles at the company's showroom in Tokyo on October 28, 2014. Honda said its six-month net profit jumped almost 19 percent, but the Japanese automaker cut its earnings outlook for the full fiscal year. The Civic and Accord maker posted a 288.41 billion yen (2.67 billion USD) net profit in the six months through September, up from 242.87 billion a year earlier, while sales rose to 6.0 trillion yen from 5.72 trillion yen. Photo AFP-Lehtikuva.
Japan's automaker Honda Motor Co. said Tuesday that its net profit rose about 18.8 percent to 288.41 billion yen (about 2.67 billion U.S. dollars) in the first half of the fiscal year, but cut its outlook for the entire reporting year due to its weak Asian sales.
Honda said newly launched models contributed to the rise, up from 242.87 billion yen (about 2.25 billion dollars) in the same period last year, with its group operating profit increasing 1.7 percent to about 3.36 billion dollars and sales were up 4.9 percent to about 55.66 billion dollars.
The automaker, however, cut its net profit outlook for the current fiscal year ending next March, as it lowered its vehicle sales forecast for domestic and other Asian markets.
Also on Tuesday, another Japanese automaker, Toyota, said it remained the world top car seller in the first three quarters of 2014, with Germany's Volkswagen and U.S. General Motors ranking the second and third, respectively.
Toyota group sales totaled 7,615,000 vehicles, up 2.8 percent from the same nine-month period last year, it said. Toyota was the world's top car seller in 2012 and 2013.
