They NEED a tax cut?
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/12/business/global/12toyota.html?src=buslnBy HIROKO TABUCHI
Published: May 11, 2010
TOKYO — Despite being mired in recalls and inquiries into its safety record, Toyota roared back to a profit in the fiscal year that just ended and forecast on Tuesday a further increase in earnings.
Toyota had a particularly strong performance in the three months through March — the period when the Japanese automaker recalled millions of cars and was under the intense scrutiny of consumers and governments around the world.
Profit for the three months was 112 billion yen ($1.2 billion), in contrast to a 766 billion yen loss the year before, as the automaker slashed costs and introduced aggressive sales incentives that lured customers back to its showrooms.
Quarterly revenue jumped to 5.28 trillion yen, from 3.54 trillion yen the previous year, when car sales slumped in the middle of the global financial crisis. Revenues showed an especially strong rebound in the Chinese market and in the United States, while sales in Europe and Japan continued to slump.
In March, global sales rose 26 percent from the previous year, partly because of generous incentives offered in the United States, while global production surged 80 percent.
“After taking over amid a storm, I wanted to do anything to avoid a third straight year in the red,” Akio Toyoda, president of Toyota, said after the earnings announcement.
“These results follow tough and anguishing decisions” on the part of Toyota’s management, he said, referring to the automaker’s dismissal of workers both in Japan and overseas amid companywide cost cuts.
FULL story at link.