Toyota Is Number One

News from the land of the rising sun sees Toyota accelerating past South Korea's Samsung Electronics to become Asia's biggest company by market value, after the Japanese automaker's shares doubled in the past year. The situation was helped, at least in part, by the easing of strained relations in China where Toyotas sales are rebounding after the Diaoyu islands incident. Toyota's market capitalisation stood at some JPY22.23 trillion in May 2013, beating out the Galaxy smartphone and tablet computer giant which was worth the equivalent of JPY20.32 trillion, and this is despite a number of embarrassing product recalls and fierce competition in markets that Toyota traditionally had none.

image: autospies.com Toyota is arguably the world's biggest automaker, although Volkswagen and GM are biting at their heels. It has seen its shares jump on the back of improving financial results. The Corolla, Camry and Prius maker said that its net profit for the entire year more than tripled, helped along by general acceptance of their hybrid models due in part to a rationalisation of their manufacturing plants around the globe. Samsung overtook the Japanese giant in market value in 2011, according to the leading Nikkei business daily, as the South Korean conglomerate notched up huge profits in its global battle with US rival, Apple. Toyota's Tokyo-listed shares finished at JPY6450, more than double their JPY3165 closing price a year earlier.