Mazda posts second-quarter loss, but saw recovery in North America

Mazda Motor posted a 7.59 billion yen ($73.4 million) operating loss in the three months ended September 30 as sales decreased mainly due to the coronavirus crisis.

Mazda posted a smaller loss in the second quarter after it gained an advantage from a recovery in sales in North America, its biggest market. Vehicle sales there increased 1% from a year earlier.

The automaker kept its full-year forecast for an operating loss of 40 billion yen. It shows improvement given the average full-year estimate for a 53.3 billion yen operating loss from 17 analysts polled by Refinitiv.

For the full business year, the maker of the CX-5 SUV crossover and Mazda3 sedan kept its full-year prediction for worldwide vehicle sales to drop 8.5% to 1.3 million units, the lowest in seven years.