TOKYO : Japanese automakers are getting much-needed cover from an old standby, as the weaker yen helps prop up profits amid declining sales in China and the increasingly tough shift to electric vehicles.
"They are struggling in the Chinese market," he said."They just don't have an immediate solution" for their problems there, he added. Automakers' shares are quick to react to swings in the yen, although the companies themselves tend to stick to conservative forecasts for the currency. On Wednesday, a Honda official said its April-June operating profit came in tens of billions of yen higher than expected, with the weak yen accounting for about half of that.
Sales of Toyota, including of its Lexus luxury brand, rose over the period. For the first half of the calendar year, they declined almost 3 per cent.