Toyota cuts dividend for 1st time

[rickaren]

Toyota cuts dividend for 1st time

Posted Monday, May 11, 2009, 12:06 pm in Employee News

Toyota Motor Corp., the world’s largest automaker, cut its annual dividend for the first time and predicted a loss that’s almost twice analysts’ estimates as global car demand plunges, Bloomberg News reported.

The loss may total 550 billion yen ($5.5 billion) for the year ending in March 2010, compared with a loss of 436.9 billion yen a year earlier, the company said in a statement Friday according to the news service. The maker of Lexus LS sedans and Corolla small cars was expected to forecast a loss of 284 billion yen, according to the median of 17 analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

The 72-year-old automaker’s loss was 766 billion yen, or $8.2 billion, for the three months that ended in March, capping its first annual deficit in 59 years, the news service reported. For the quarter, Toyota’s loss was wider than General Motors Corp.’s $5.98 billion and Ford Motor Co.’s $1.43 billion, the story said. (Bloomberg)

[rickaren]

Toyota cuts annual production to 7-year low

Posted Wednesday, May 13, 2009, 11:58 am in Employee News

Toyota Motor Corp. said Wednesday it will cut vehicle production 28 percent this year to its lowest level in seven years, the Associated Press reported.

The world’s largest automaker, struggling as sales fall across the globe, says it aims to produce 6.68 million vehicles in 2009, down from 9.24 million in 2008, the AP said.

The carmaker has struggled to keep up with falling demand, especially in the U.S. and Europe, the story said. It has suspended production at factories, cut temporary workers in Japan and offered buyouts to American workers, the news service reported.

Toyota has not closed any factories and retains the capacity to make up to 10 million vehicles per year. But the annual production cut is the latest indicator of how quickly its fortunes have turned, the story said. (Associated Press/Detroit News)