Sta. Rosa, Laguna—Toyota Motors Philippines Corp. said the weak peso is expected to reduce its financial performance in 2018 by P1 billion.
TMP president Saturo Suzuki said the continued depreciation of the peso would impact on the company’s financials and force it to raise prices of vehicles again.
“Sooner or later we will consider imposing price increase. For other models, we’re studying the increase in price,” Suzuki told reporters Thursday at the roll-off ceremonies for the all-new Vios at the Toyota assembly plant in Sta. Rosa, Laguna.
TMP imports parts for locally-assembled Vios and Innova. TMP vice president for marketing Jose Maria Atienza said prices of some models were already adjusted by an average of 2.3 percent.
TMP, the third largest company in the country in terms of revenues, saw its net income rose 11 percent to P13.4 billion in 2017 from P12.1 billion in 2016, as consolidated sales climbed 19 percent to P185.3 billion from P155.8 billion. TMP sold 183,908 vehicles in 2017, based on data from parent company GT Capital Holdings Inc.
TMP executives said they were seriously looking at the impact of a weaker peso on the company’s operations.
Suzuki also noted the slower sales of Toyota Vios, the company’s entry to the Comprehensive Automotive Resurgence Strategy, the government’s incentive program for the automotive industry.
“As long as the peso level continues, we will also continue to increase our price levels by twice a year,” said Suzuki.
He said TMP was employing several measures to contain the impact of the weaker peso. Suzuki said that on top of the price increase, the company was also implementing cost-cutting measures.
Toyota is rolling out the all-new Vios this month, with a monthly production volume of 3,500 units, the rate needed to hit the prescribed volume of 200,000 units under the Cars program.
“Still we feel some worries caused by the current market slowdown but we are very optimistic with our growth every year,” Suzuki said.