Honda Motor Co. reported Wednesday record group net profit and sales for the April-September first half on robust overseas activity and a weaker yen.
Group net profit rose 11.0 percent from a year earlier to 271.31 billion yen on sales of 5.23 trillion yen, up 13.7 percent.
Its overseas automobile sales increased 9.7 percent from a year earlier to 1.45 million units, helping the company boost its global sales 6.3 percent to a record 1.78 million units.
The sales volume increase and the weaker yen allowed Honda to post a 12.2 percent rise in automobile sales value to 4.19 trillion yen.
However, domestic sales sank 6.6 percent to 327,000 units.
A Honda official said domestic sales in September for the entire industry dropped for the 15th consecutive month as demand remained sluggish.
Due to weak domestic sales, the company revised down its global sales volume forecast in the full year to March to 3.70 million units from 3.72 million forecast earlier.
Motorcycle sales in the fiscal first half rose 2.5 percent to 5.196 million units in volume and 17.2 percent to 645.6 billion yen in value. Overseas sales increased 2.8 percent to 5.009 million units, while domestic sales declined 6.0 percent to 187,000 units.
For the whole of fiscal 2006, Honda expects its group net profit to fall 7.0 percent from the previous year to 555 billion yen on 11 trillion yen in sales, up 11.0 percent.