Mazda Motor Corp. said Thursday that its group sales and operating profit for the first half of fiscal 2006 hit all-time highs, driven by brisk sales in the United States and Europe.
Mazda's consolidated operating profit for the April-September period soared 43 percent from a year before to 69.76 billion yen on sales of 1.52 trillion yen, up 12.5 percent. The Hiroshima-based automaker benefited also from a weaker yen and cost-reduction efforts.
Mazda, the Japanese affiliate of Ford Motor Co., said its first-half group pretax profit also advanced 30.5 percent to 56.59 billion yen. Its group net profit, however, slipped 12.5 percent to 27.21 billion yen because a pension-related extraordinary profit was booked in the previous year's fiscal first half.