DETROIT (Reuters) -- Mitsubishi Motors Corp. today reported a 42-percent drop in profit for the quarter ended March 31, pressured by the strong Japanese yen and production halts after the Japanese earthquake.
The Japanese vehicle maker did not give a forecast for this year's production or sales, citing uncertainties surrounding its recovery after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.
Mitsubishi has resumed some production in Japan and expects production at about 80 percent of normal volume until October when it expects a full production schedules to resume in Japan, IHS Automotive Insight said in a research note.
The company posted net profit of 17.8 billion Japanese yen ($216.4 million) for the quarter. It also said its operating profit fell 19 percent in the quarter to 27.3 billion yen ($331.8 million).
For the fiscal year that also ended on March 31, Mitsubishi sold 1.1 million vehicles, an increase of 15 percent from the previous year.
Mitsubishi promised a forecast of the new fiscal year's financial and production outlook, but did not say when such a forecast would come. It cited "extreme difficulty in producing rational forecasts at the current time due to uncertainties" about production after the earthquake.
For the last fiscal year that ended March 31, Mitsubishi posted net income of 15.6 billion yen ($189.3 million), compared with net income of 4.7 billion yen ($57.2 million) during the previous fiscal year. The gains resulted from higher sales for new models and sales growth in emerging markets, particularly in China, the company said in a statement. Net sales rose 26 percent to 1.8285 trillion yen ($22.24 billion).
About 57 percent of Mitsubishi's vehicle sales were in Asia, including 164,000 units sold in its home Japanese market. Asian sales overall rose 18 percent but its sales in Japan fell 7 percent.
The company did not break out sales in China or Brazil, which are included in its overall Asian sales.
Sales for the 41-year-old automaker's second-biggest market in Europe rose 29 percent, driven by a strong showing of the ASX compact crossover that launched in June 2010, and higher sales in Russia, where local production of the Outlander was established, the company said.
Europe accounted for about 20 percent of Mitsubishi's sales in the fiscal year.
In North America, sales rose 7 percent to 94,000 vehicles, helped by the launch in October of the Outlander Sport SUV.
In February, Mitsubishi announced that it will shift production of the Outlander Sport SUV from Japan to its plant in Normal, Illinois.
Mitsubishi plans to launch eight new electric-powered vehicles by 2015, including a plug-in hybrid in 2013.
It launched a European version of the electric-powered i-MiEV car in 15 countries earlier this year and plans to introduce the model to the U.S. market by the end of the year.
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