Mazda Motor Corp. and Subaru's parent company Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd. today posted rosy second-quarter profit growth as a weak yen made their exports more lucrative.
The second-tier automakers benefit the most among their domestic peers from a cheaper yen because they ship overseas about 80 percent of their Japan-made vehicles. Earnings made abroad are worth more when repatriated under a weak yen.
Results were also helped by brisk sales at both automakers in the United States, their biggest market. Driven by red-hot sales of the Forester SUV and Legacy models, Subaru recorded a 34th straight month of sales growth in September.
For the first nine months, Subaru's U.S. light-vehicle sales have grown 20 percent to 375,485 vehicles while Mazda is up 9 percent to 240,953 vehicles, according to the Automotive News Data Center. The overall U.S. market gained 6 percent to 12.4 million vehicles.
Mazda, Japan's fifth-biggest automaker, said today operating profit grew 27 percent to 47.59 billion yen ($428.8 million) in the July-September quarter.
The maker of the Mazda3 and other sporty cars kept its annual profit forecasts unchanged, and slightly increased its revenue forecast.
Meanwhile, Fuji Heavy, the smallest of Japan's eight passenger car makers, raised its full-year operating profit forecast to 382 billion yen from 340 billion yen, and lifted its dividend forecast for the year by 6 yen to 62 yen.
Fuji Heavy said it now expects to sell 22,000 more vehicles overseas this year than initially forecast thanks to brisk North American sales, although it now sees weaker-than-expected sales in Japan and Europe.
Fuji Heavy said its quarterly operating profit jumped 32 percent to 106.94 billion yen. Revenue rose 24 percent to 716.85 billion yen.
The dollar soared above 111 yen on Friday after the Bank of Japan unexpectedly eased monetary policy further.
Mazda and Fuji Heavy had both previously assumed an average rate of 100 yen for the year. Earlier today they adjusted those assumptions to 101 yen and 104 yen, respectively.
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