Mitsubishi Reports Profit for 2006

With the 2006 fiscal year over, car companies have started posting their sales output for the past year. Mitsubishi Motors, one of Japan’s car manufacturers, has posted their sales report for 2006 which shows that for the first time in four years, they have turned a good amount of profit.

The said report is indeed a piece of good news for Mitsubishi employees around the world. The Japanese brand reported to have made a profit of $73 million for the past year. That is a considerably a huge improvement over 2005 when the company lost $770 million. Mitsubishi’s long fight to the top after it was shaken by a scandal a few years back will certainly be given a big boost after they have reported a profit for the first time since the year 2002.

Mitsubishi reported that for the past year, they have increased their sales by 4 percent as compared to the previous year. The car company’s sales figure around the world totaled to some $18.5 billion. Of that sale figure, the North American market is the biggest consumer of Mitsubishi vehicles.

This year, Mitsubishi continues its success in the North American auto market when they sold 31,645 vehicles for the first three months of the year. Year to date sales after the first three months of this year is 23.2 percent higher than last year’s first quarter sales.

One of the reasons for the company’s profit pointed out to its cost cutting program that they currently are implementing in the United States. Dan Irvin, speaking for Mitsubishi, has this to say: “We're doing everything we can to control our costs and provide vehicles on a timely basis. We've been working with our suppliers to get value added and value engineering ideas to control costs.” The company has done this by offering a $40 million concession package to members of the United Auto Workers (UAW) in exchange for no involuntary workforce reduction. The union approved the deal and as a result, Mitsubishi has succeeded in cutting down their costs in the United States.

In response to this, Ralph Timan, the President of the United Auto Workers Local 2488 which accepted the deal, has this to say: “I'm encouraged that the corporation made a profit, but I would like to remind everybody that our workers sacrificed and contributed to their ability to make that profit.”

To further increase their profit in the global market, Mitsubishi is on track to provide improved models for the coming years. One example of the much improved vehicle coming from Mitsubishi that consumers should look out for is the Mitsubishi Evo X. The Evo is one Mitsubishi’s more popular models owing to its reputation as being a race worthy sports car. It is actually named the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution and is the company’s rally-inspired all wheel drive car. While Mitsubishi is yet to release specifications for the 2008 Mitsubishi Evo X, it is of course understood by performance enthusiasts that this can be equipped with a Mitsubishi cold air intake system to increase its performance level.