Honda profit up despite hit from Takata air bag recalls

AP FILE PHOTO

TOKYO — Honda reported a quarterly profit of 127.7 billion yen ($1 billion), up 7 percent from its revised result from the year before, even as costs of a massive recall related to defective air bags dented the boost from healthy sales.

Tokyo-based Honda Motor Co. kept its annual profit forecast unchanged Wednesday at 525 billion yen ($4.3 billion).

Honda, hard hit by air bag problems at supplier Takata Corp., said recall-related operating losses totaled 87.5 billion yen ($723 million) for the quarter.

READ: Takata plunges as Honda dumps it as airbag supplier after record fine

Sales for the July-September fiscal second quarter rose nearly 16 percent to 3.6 trillion yen ($30 billion).

Takata agreed to pay $70 million in U.S. penalties for lapses in how it handled recalls of millions of explosion-prone air bags, blamed in eight deaths and more than 100 injuries worldwide. TVJ