Mazda losses hit US$1.3b

JAPAN'S Mazda Motor said yesterday it lost US$1.3 billion over the last year as it took a double hit from the strong yen and falling demand in key developed markets.

Mazda, Japan's fifth-largest car maker by volume, reported a group net loss of ¥107.7 billion in the fiscal year to March, much larger than the ¥60 billion loss reported a year earlier.

At the operating level the company, based in Hiroshima in western Japan, fell into a ¥38.7 billion loss, from a profit of ¥23.8 billion the year earlier.

Sales fell 12.6 per cent to ¥2.03 trillion yen.

The carmaker said the loss was mainly mainly due to the strong yen, a slump in sales overseas, notably in Europe, as well as the impact of last year's quake and tsunami and massive floods in Thailand.

For the current fiscal year to March 2013, Mazda forecast a return to the black, projecting net profit at ¥10 billion and operating profit at ¥30 billion on sales of 2.2 trillion yen.

AFP