At the shareholders' meeting on 20 17, Akio Toyoda also issued a military order for revival and growth, even though his performance decreased for two consecutive quarters.
Pulling the camera back to June this year, Akio Toyoda suddenly burst into tears at the shareholders' meeting. Because of the ravages of COVID-19, Toyota's operating income in the first quarter of March (April-June) of fiscal year 2002/KLOC-0 decreased by nearly half, and the leading data decreased by 40% year-on-year. Although the operating profit remained profitable, it was only a fraction of the same period last year.
Every time he encounters a seemingly "desperate" difficult moment, Akio Toyoda will sob in public, but every time he cries, it finally becomes a signal that Toyota is out of the crisis. The same is true of the black swan incident in this epidemic.
Just recently, Toyota released the joint performance report for the first half of March (April-September) of fiscal year 2002/KLOC-0, which cleared the haze of COVID-19 epidemic. Japan's first automobile manufacturer finally succeeded in crossing the dark fog and ushered in another new turning point in the gradual recovery of various performances.
Double the annual profit forecast.
165438+1On October 6th, Akio Toyoda personally attended the financial report conference from April to September. Generally speaking, the president of Toyota usually leads the whole conference only when the annual financial report is released. Akio Toyoda delivered an important speech at the semi-annual scene, which was the first time since the former president Fujio-machi 18.
Because of the COVID-19 crisis, Akio Toyoda chose to sit in the town by himself.
From April to September this year, Toyota's operating income was 1 1.38 trillion yen, down 26% year-on-year, and its operating profit was 5 199 billion yen, down 63% year-on-year. However, compared with the April-June fiscal quarter, the performance in July-September has shown obvious signs of recovery. In view of the rebound in China market, Toyota has more than doubled its annual operating profit forecast.
Toyota predicts that the sales volume of this fiscal year will reach 9.42 million vehicles, an increase of 3.5% compared with the previous forecast of 9,654,388+million vehicles, but it is still less than the 6,543,804,600 vehicles in last fiscal year.
Regarding the annual forecast, Toyota has increased its operating income from the previous forecast of 24 trillion yen to 26 trillion yen, and its operating profit has more than doubled from the previous forecast of 500 billion yen to 1.3 trillion yen; In addition, the expected earnings before interest and tax have also increased from the previous 890 billion yen to 1.76 trillion yen, more than doubling.
Jin Jiantai, executive director, said that although Toyota has done well in all aspects, as many indicators were hit hard by COVID-19 in April-June, the potential risk of the second wave of epidemic still exists, and there are still too many uncertainties in the second half of the year, so we must not take it lightly.
"This half a year's achievements are hard-won.
Akio Toyoda was emotional at the press conference. "Since taking office as the new president, I have experienced adverse events such as the financial crisis, the Great East Japan Earthquake and the appreciation of the yen, but every turnaround is the result of the unremitting efforts of the whole company." Especially after the financial crisis in 2009, Toyota began to reflect, and repeated its experience and lessons to the COVID-19 incident for deep thinking. Finally, by actively reducing production in advance, the imbalance between supply and demand was suppressed, the cost was reduced, and the pace of revenue recovery was accelerated.
Among them, China and the United States have the most obvious recovery momentum. Toyota's new car sales in the past 10 months increased by 9% in the United States, and the China market also increased by as much as 30%.
Production capacity is also gradually recovering.
According to Toyota's latest data, the company is 7? -? The world production plan for the month of 65438+February is 4.6 million vehicles, which is expected to exceed the historical record of about 4.53 million vehicles in the same period of 20 15.
Good performance of upstream suppliers
10 year 10 On October 29th, the eight major parts companies of Toyota Motor Group released the joint settlement report from April to September in advance. Although five companies eventually lost money, their performance recovered much faster than market analysts expected.
Although COVID-19 has brought too much uncertainty, Toyota's sales in Japanese mainland, North America, China and other core markets have gradually recovered. It is estimated that at least seven subsidiaries will make profits in the second half of March of fiscal year 20021(from June 2020 to March 20021).
It is worth mentioning that four companies, including Toyota Textile, Toyota Synthetic and Aichi Steel, all raised their annual performance expectations of core indicators because they are optimistic about the performance in the first half of the fiscal year.
On the one hand, it is to further cut costs and reduce equipment investment. Toyota Textile's previous budget plan for the full fiscal year was 654.38+000 billion yen, which was nearly 70% completed in the first half of the year. The cost improvement of Aisin Seiki's 8-speed AT gearbox is achieving phased results. On the other hand, it is the reasonable compression of research and development expenses, focusing on the allocation of research and development expenses for the new four modernizations.
The resumption of production and sales began to benefit neighboring suppliers.
According to the data of Japan Comprehensive Research Institute, most parts companies in Japan are still facing the dilemma of stagnant orders, but the suppliers with Toyota as their main customers have resumed orders more than expected. President Arakawa Hiroshi of Ishikawa Research Institute, a wire processing enterprise, said that they had successfully avoided the worst performance in the first half of the year, and had thought that the sales in the second half of the year would continue to be halved, but now it seems that such concerns are unfounded. "
About 60% of sales of Miyazaki fine steel, which mainly manufactures special steel, are for Toyota Group. Although the company's output was temporarily halved in the first half of the year, September was basically the same as last year.
On the other hand, it is much more difficult for suppliers of other automobile manufacturers to survive now. A spare parts supplier of Mitsubishi Motors recently said that the supply demand from Mitsubishi has been in a downturn, and the global sales of Mitsubishi Motors from April to June this year are equivalent to the same period last year. Pajero, a popular SUV model during the bubble economy, will also close its manufacturing plant in Sakaguchi-CHO, Gifu Prefecture in the second half of the year.
This is the second time that Mitsubishi DJI factory (located in Nagoya) has been closed since 200 1 year, and the domestic factory has been closed again after 20 years. According to Japanese media reports, the more parts suppliers with deep trade relations with Mitsubishi, the more severe employment and capital turnover will be.
Continue to deepen electrification reform.
It is worth mentioning that in the post-epidemic era, Toyota still puts cost reduction and efficiency improvement in the first place, but its R&D expenses are always at a high level. The company spent a total of 1. 1 1 trillion yen on research and development in the past fiscal year ending in March 2020, and it is estimated that the research and development expenses in this fiscal year will still be as high as 1. 1 trillion yen.
Also recently, the news that "President Toyota rarely drives Tesla" spread in the industry. At the earnings conference, Akio Toyoda first evaluated Tesla in public. The helmsman, who has always been a moderate and low-key figure, made a slightly ridiculous comment on his competitors for the first time with sharp words.
Tesla has always represented the ultimate in innovation and radicalism. Traditional car companies originally followed the development process of manufacturing industry and expanded step by step, but under the influence of Tesla whirlwind, they fell into a dilemma and failed at both ends.
Among the most powerful traditional car companies, Volkswagen has already bowed to Tesla verbally, so this round of representatives of traditional car companies facing Tesla is Toyota, the former shareholder of Tesla. At the moment when Tesla's market value exceeds Toyota's and is higher than the sum of the valuations of seven Japanese automakers, Akio Toyoda, as the head of Toyota, finally can't sit still.
"Tesla seriously overestimated its value of $400 billion. They are not mature enough to lead the trend of the global automobile industry, especially in the field of electric vehicle technology. "
Akio Toyoda used a humorous metaphor-
He compared the business capabilities of the two companies to "kitchens" and "chefs". For Toyota, it has a mature kitchen and chef, and has always been familiar with customers' eating habits and taste preferences, constantly providing customers with delicious food.
Tesla has only one cookbook. At this stage, they are still trying to promote their primary recipes. Before creating too many truly valuable foods and services, they hastily announced that their recipes would become the standard of the future world.
Akio Toyoda admitted that in the latest ranking of car companies' valuation, Tesla did ride the dust (the market value rose to about 407.5 billion US dollars), and the valuation did exceed the sum of the valuations of seven Japanese car companies (the market value of Toyota was about1910.8 billion US dollars), but the reality that the industry can't ignore is that Toyota's final volume is much larger than Tesla's in terms of both production and sales.
Like Tesla, Toyota has focused its efforts on the China market, but unlike Tesla, as a Japanese automobile manufacturer, Toyota has to weigh and consider more complicated issues than Tesla in the face of the subtle special relationship between China and the United States.
In response to Sino-US trade frictions, Toyota's strategy is "balanced diplomacy". 1October 5th, 165438, the most competitive election in the United States, President Akio Toyoda stated that no matter what the election results on the other side of the ocean, it would not affect the company's marketing strategy under the background of Sino-US friction. In the case that the prospect of the global new car market is still uncertain, the sustained growth of performance needs to win in the two major markets of China and the United States.
In order to maximize the benefits between China and the United States, Toyota strives to establish a "strategic and mutually beneficial" market relationship. Of course, this is also a feedback microcosm of Japanese car companies facing regional friction.
Beijing time1October 8th 165438 Biden's regime was officially born, and the new US president took office, so it is necessary for Toyota to rebuild its strategy toward the US. Biden proposed a convention to invest $2 trillion in environmental infrastructure in the next four years, including plans to build 500,000 new charging facilities to popularize pure electric technology. If the fuel consumption restrictions in the United States are further strengthened in the future, Toyota will have to take corresponding measures.
For the United States, the end of the new presidential election heralds a new era. As the haze of COVID-19 gradually dispersed from the core markets such as China, some manufacturers including Toyota also rushed out from the dark moment when the epidemic swept through. In the face of the next round of new challenges and a new round of tactical play, Toyota people must have other plans in their hearts.
Text/North Shore
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