TOKYO (Reuters) – Honda Motor reported a 6% decline in quarterly profit on Friday, but less than expected, citing prolonged shortages of semiconductors and supply chain strains due to coronavirus restrictions in China and the war in Ukraine.
Japan’s second-largest automaker by sales posted operating profit of 199.5 billion yen (1.49 billion euros) for the quarter ended March 31, up from 213.2 billion yen a year earlier.
This result is higher than analysts’ expectations, which had forecast a profit of 152.2 billion yen, according to a consensus of Refinitiv.
For the current fiscal year which started in April, Honda expects operating profit to decline about 7 percent to 810 billion yen. Analysts had forecast earnings of $926.3 billion on average, according to Refinitiv.
The maker of the hugely popular Honda Accord said on Thursday it would cut production by about a fifth at two of its Japanese plants for the rest of May, a month after cutting production by about half at one between them.
(Satoshi Sugiyama report, French version Augustin Turpin, edited by Kate Entringer)
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