TOKYO — Honda’s fiscal first quarter revenue fell 33% from final 12 months as a worldwide laptop chip scarcity, a pandemic-related lockdown in China and the rising prices of uncooked supplies harm the Japanese automaker.
Tokyo-based Honda Motor Co. reported Wednesday that its revenue totaled 149.2 billion yen ($1.1 billion) within the April-June quarter, down from 222.5 billion yen ($1.7 billion) a 12 months earlier. Quarterly gross sales slipped 7% to three.8 trillion yen ($28 billion).
Honda stored its revenue forecast for the total fiscal 12 months by way of March 2023 unchanged at 710 billion yen ($5.3 billion).
The semiconductor scarcity has harm all of the world’s automakers, together with Honda, regardless of robust demand, and the producers have been scrambling to safe various suppliers.
Honda, which makes the Accord sedan, Odyssey minivan and Civic compact, bought about 815,000 automobiles final quarter, down from 998,000 automobiles the identical interval a 12 months earlier. Auto gross sales dropped in virtually all areas around the globe, together with Japan, the U.S. and Europe.
“I ask for the understanding from all those that are nonetheless ready for his or her automobiles and vow that our entire firm is doing its utmost to make the deliveries even a day sooner,” Chief Monetary Officer Kohei Takeuchi mentioned.
Takeuchi mentioned the semiconductor scarcity curtailed motorbike manufacturing in addition to automotive manufacturing, including to uncertainty about future prospects.
Honda mentioned the current lockdown in Shanghai was among the many causes of the scarcity in laptop chips provide however declined to provide specifics.
Though U.S. gross sales are probably dealing with a dent from recession worries and different financial hardships, Takeuchi acknowledged he was extra apprehensive concerning the scarcity drawback and producing the automobiles prospects had been ready for.
Takeuchi famous that motorbike gross sales for the quarter, which grew to 4.25 million bikes from 3.88 million a 12 months earlier, had been going robust, particularly in India. The cheaper yen and price cuts helped preserve profitability general, he added.
The yen has been at a two-decade low in opposition to the U.S. greenback. An affordable yen has traditionally labored as a boon for exporters like Honda by boosting the worth of their abroad earnings when transformed into yen. Nevertheless it additionally will increase prices for imported parts and supplies.
Japan’s prime automaker Toyota Motor Corp. reported just lately that its fiscal first quarter revenue fell almost 18%. Nissan Motor Co. noticed its quarterly revenue plunge to lower than half of what it was a 12 months earlier. Each had been hit by the chips scarcity.
Like the remainder of the business, Honda has aggressive ambitions in electrical automobiles. Earlier this 12 months, it introduced an funding of 5 trillion yen ($37 billion) over the subsequent decade in such analysis. That features a collaboration with Common Motors Co. in North America to develop fashions happening sale in 2024.
To beef up its capital base and hold a versatile capital technique, Honda mentioned it was shopping for again its personal firm frequent shares of as much as 100 billion yen ($740 million), beginning Friday by way of March 2023.
