Mazda reports profit jump on solid sales

The Japanese affiliate of Ford Motor Co. reported a 46.8 billion yen ($450 million; 285 million euros) profit for the quarter through March, up from 31.6 billion yen the same period the previous year.

Quarterly sales rose 1.2 percent to 969.5 billion yen ($9.3 billion; euro5.9 billion), partly on strong demand for the Mazda 6 in Europe, Mazda said.

Mazda, Japan's fifth-largest automaker, said it has boosted production at its main Japanese plants by 11 percent for a combined annual production capacity of 996,000 vehicles. As a result, production output in Japan for the fiscal year exceeded 1 million vehicles, the highest level in 15 years, Mazda said.

For the fiscal year through March 2008, Mazda recorded a 91.84 billion yen ($883 million; euro560 million) profit, up 25 percent on year -- a record for the company. Annual sales rose 7 percent to 3.476 trillion yen ($33.4 billion; euro21.2 billion).

"We are very pleased that we achieved record profits across the board," Mazda Chief Executive Hisakazu Imaki said.

For the fiscal year ending March 2009, the Hiroshima-based manufacturer of the Demio subcompact and the RX-8 sports car expects profit to decline 24 percent to 70 billion yen ($673 million; euro427 million) because of a stronger yen and higher raw material costs. A strong yen erodes the value of overseas earnings of Japanese exporters.

Still, Mazda expects global vehicle sales to climb 9 percent to 1.48 million vehicles in the fiscal year ending March 2009. It sold 1.36 million vehicles worldwide in the fiscal year just ended, up nearly 5 percent from the previous.

But Mazda expects the current fiscal year sales to decline 13.7 percent to 3 trillion yen ($28.8 billion; euro18.3 billion) because of the stronger yen and soaring raw material costs. Accounting changes are also expected to diminish sales, it said.

But the company was upbeat, noting that it planned a new passenger car plant in Thailand with Ford, where production will begin in 2009.