Toyota cuts profit forecast by half

The Japanese automaker said that its net income will fall 56 percent to 180 billion yen in the current financial year ending March 2012, as floods adversely affected production of vehicles at plants even in United States.

This caused net shortfall of 230,000 vehicles.

According to the experts, Toyota might lose its top position as biggest auto manufacturer.

Global sales of Toyota are likely to fall at 7.38 million vehicles which will put the automaker behind General Motors which sold 7.48 million vehicles last year.

Earlier, Toyota expected to sell 7.6 million vehicles but, the current forecast is far below it.

Satoru Takada, Tokyo-based auto analyst at TIW Inc., was quoted by Bloomberg as saying, "It looks like Toyota's recovery is going to be tougher and take longer than expected."

"With the strong yen weighing heavily, it's looking increasingly difficult for Toyota to make its comeback," added Takada.