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Toyota makes profit despite recalls

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-05-12 03:53

LOS ANGELES -- Toyota Motor Corp. announced on Tuesday that it made a profit during its latest fiscal year that ended March 31, despite heavy spending on recalls and sales incentives.

The company said in a statement that it earned 2.3 billion dollars for the year, compared to a loss of 4.8 billion in the previous year.

For its fiscal fourth quarter, Toyota earned a profit of 1.2 billion dollars compared with a eight-billion-dollar loss the year before, according to the statement. Quarterly revenue rose 49 percent to 57 billion from 38.9 billion a year earlier.

The company attributed the gain to an improving global economy and a rebound by the U.S. auto market.

Over the past year, Toyota has ordered a series of recalls involving millions of cars due to pedal and other safety defects.

The company estimated that it has spent as much as two billion dollars on recall expenses during the second half of the fiscal year, and lost somewhat under 100,000 vehicle sales because consumers were reluctant to purchase a Toyota product.

Toyota is now under at least eight separate federal safety investigations and reviews. A ninth investigation was closed last month, when Toyota agreed to pay a record 16.4-million-dollar fine for failing to recall models promptly that had a sticky gas pedal.