Toyota Motor Corp. (TYO), the world's top selling auto maker, on Wednesday announced a 77% drop in net profit in the January-March quarter. Toyota said that fiscal fourth quarter net profit slid to 25.4 billion yen ($314 million) from 112.2 billion yen a year earlier. The operating profit was 46.1 billion yen, falling short of analysts' average estimate of 94.6 billion yen, according to Thomson Reuters.

Toyota's net profit for the full fiscal year through March, however, nearly doubled to 408.1 billion yen ($5 billion) from 209.4 billion yen. Toyota's previous forecast was net income of 490 billion yen and said that financial results for FY2011 decreased from the previously announced forecasts mainly due to the suspension of the vehicle production and the decrease in the number of vehicle sales caused by the Great East Japan Earthquake.

Net revenues for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2011 totaled 18.993 trillion yen, an increase of 0.2 percent compared to the previous fiscal year. The impact of the Great East Japan Earthquake in March reduced net profit by 110.0 billion yen.

Toyota, which is expected to lose its spot as the world's top-selling automaker to General Motors Co., decided not to announce forecasts for consolidated vehicle sales, net revenues and earnings for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2012, as more time is needed to complete the examination of production and sales plans due to the impact of the Great East Japan Earthquake.

Toyota said in a statement that its production is expected to normalize in stages, starting in June, on global basis, rather than starting in July in Japan and in August outside Japan as it had announced last month. It said production will be about 70% of normal on a global basis in June.

The March earthquake wiped out parts suppliers in northeastern Japan, severely disrupting car production. Toyota said it still lacks about 30 types of parts, although that was an improvement from the 150 it had lacked after the quake.

"Our priority is to get our production back to normal and recover from the disaster," Toyota President Akio Toyoda told reporters.

TMC also announced a year-end dividend of 30 yen per share, to be proposed at the general shareholders meeting on June 17.

Japan Sales Down

Toyota's worldwide vehicle sales for the 12 months ended March 31 totaled 7.308 million units, an increase of 71 thousand units compared to the previous fiscal year. In Japan, vehicle sales were 1.913 million units, a decrease of 250 thousand units compared to the last fiscal year. Operating income from Japanese operations decreased by 137.2 billion yen, to a loss of 362.4 billion yen. In North America, vehicle sales totaled 2.031 million units, a decrease of 67 thousand units compared to the last fiscal year.