Honda profits decrease 56 percent
Honda Motor Co. this week released its second quarter results, which showed a net income of $599 million, a decrease of 56.2 percent from the same period in 2008. The company said the decline for the quarter, which ended Sept. 30, was primarily due to decreased car sales and the unfavorable impact of currency translation.
Motorcycle unit sales totaled 2.4 million units, a decrease of 16.8 percent from the same period last year. The company said it saw decreased unit sales in Indonesia and regions including Brazil, which more than offset increased unit sales in India.
The company’s consolidated income before income taxes and equity income of affiliates for the quarter totaled $733 million, a decrease of 55.7 percent from the same period in 2008. The company has posted a consolidated operating income of $727 million for the quarter, a decrease of 56 percent as compared to the same period of the prior year.
The company’s profits, though down from last year, outpaced its own expectations for the year, according to the Wall Street Journal’s MarketWatch, which said Honda was likely to be the only one of Japan’s automakers to turn a profit for the first half of the fiscal year. MarketWatch said Honda had earlier anticipated a 10 billion yen loss for the first half of the year.
