HYOGO, Japan — Toyo Tire Corp. reported a 9.8% drop in operating income for the quarter ended Sept. 30 on marginally higher sales, results that tempered the company's otherwise positive year-to-date results.
Operating income for the Hyogo-based company's third quarter fell to $115.6 million on 0.2% higher sales of $876.5 million, yielding an operating ratio of 13.2%. Net earnings were up 15-fold to $74.5 million, despite a $7.75 million extraordinary loss to cover expenses related to 2015-era product-compensation costs for seismic building bearings.
For the nine months ended Sept. 30, Toyo reported 10.4% higher operating income of $360.6 million on 14.6% higher sales of $3.48 billion. Net income stood at $262.4 million.
Based on the quarterly and nine-month results, Toyo affirmed its earlier fiscal 2021 projections of improvement of 32% in operating earnings and 14% in sales over fiscal 2020.
Toyo's tire business reported a 7.1% drop in operating income for the quarter to $120.7 million on 1.4% higher sales of $795.3 million, yielding an operating ratio of 15.2%.
For the nine-month period, the tire business reported an operating income of $374.2 million, up 71.3% over 2020, on 15.1% higher sales of $2.31 billion.
Toyo's business in North America (tire and non-tire combined) grew 6.2% in the quarter, to $543.7 million, and 22.5% during the January-September period to $1.53 million.
As such, North America now accounts for nearly 60% of Toyo's global sales, up roughly four percentage points versus 2020.
