TOKYO (Reuters) -Toyota Motor raised its full-year operating profit forecast on Wednesday, as cost reduction efforts and strong hybrid sales were expected to help offset the impact of U.S. import tariffs. The world's biggest automaker now expects operating profit of 3.4 trillion yen ($22.6 billion) for the financial year to end-March, up 6% from its previous outlook of 3.2 trillion yen. "Despite the impact of U.S. tariffs, we have continued to build upon our improvement efforts such as increasing sales volume, improving costs and expanding value chain profits," the company said in presentation materials. Toyota reported a second straight quarterly operating profit drop in the second quarter at 839.6 billion yen, down 27% from 1.16 trillion yen a year earlier and below the 863.1 billion yen average estimate of eight analysts surveyed by LSEG. Despite increased vehicle sales, the automaker's North American business swung to an operating loss of 134 billion yen for the first half of the financial year from a 128 billion yen profit a year earlier, hurt by U.S. tariffs. Toyota said last week its worldwide production increased by more than 10% in September and rose for a fourth straight month, as both sales and output increased in the U.S., its top market. ($1 = 150.7800 yen) (Reporting by Daniel Leussink; Editing by Jacqueline Wong) (The article has been published through a syndicated feed. Except for the headline, the content has been published verbatim. Liability lies with original publisher.)
