[Company analysis] Toyota Tsusho Corporation (豊田通商)

「Toyota Tsusho Corporation (豊田通商)」is one of the largest general trading company in Japan, and it handles petroleum plants, food and insurance, as well as automobiles, metals and machinery. However this company is not included in the five largest Japanese trading companies(「Mitsubishi Corporation(三菱商事)」,「Sumitomo Corporation(住友商事)」,「Mitsui & Co., Ltd.(三井物産)」,「Itochu Corporation(伊藤忠商事)」and「Marubeni Corporation(丸紅)」. In addition this company has a role as a trading company for the「Toyota Group」. The number of consolidated employees is approximately 53,565.

 

1. Company Profile

2. Summary and Features

3. Major Business

4. Financial Information

 

 

 

1. Company Profile

 

※Unit is JPY million, as of 2019

Company name	Toyota Tsusho Corporation
Company name (Japanese)	豊田通商
Date of establishment	Thursday, July 1, 1948
Headquarters location	〒450-8575　名古屋市中村区名駅四丁目9番8号
Capital	64,936
Consolidated sales	6,762,702
Consolidated operating profit	215,197
Consolidated total assets	4,441,464
Consolidated capital	1,389,616
Capital adequacy ratio	31.3%
Consolidated number of employees	58,565

 

 

 

2. Summary and Features

 
「Toyota Kinyuu Kaisha(トヨタ金融会社)」which was established by 「Toyota Motors(トヨタ自動車)」, in order to provide sales related financial service, is the predecessor of current「Toyota Tsusho(豊田通商)」. The automobile export business of「Toyota Tsusho」was begin with the export to the Dominican Republic in 1964. After that, they conducted automobile and its related parts export business not only for「Toyota Motor」but also for「Hino Motors」,「Subaru」and「Daihatsu Motor」.  

In 2000,「Toyota Tsusyo」merged「Kasho Company, Ltd.,(加商株式会社)」which is a trading company handled rubber, paper, food and chemical s in Southeast Asia and in 2006, they merged another trading company,「Tomen Corporation(トーメン)」. Before the above two merger,「Toyota Tsusho」was just a automobile trading company. However by this merger, they could expanded their business territory significantly, and became a major general trading company.

「Toyota Tsusho」has a strong business base in the energy and plant fields, especially in the Middle East and Asia, and they also carry out electric power business in North America. In the chemical and synthetic resin fields, and this is good advantage for promoting the sale. In the urban development businesses suce as wind power generation, food and clothing, they are conducting it via their subsidiaries. 「Toyota Tsusho」also has an insurance brokerage business in Japan. Especially in the non-life insurance and insurance agency fields, this company has the largest sales in Japan.

As a business structure, the combination of automobile business and other businesses is a characteristic of「Toyota Tsusho」. However, this does not mean that they just only supply materials, products to their customer. By implementing  a large amount of business investment, they established an efficient supply system from resource development, which is the source material. In addition to this, the fact that this company handles a wide range of areas beyond the conventional trading company's business, from recycling to reuse, is a crucial difference between「Toyota Tsusho」and other major trading companies.

In addition, based on "TPS(Toyota Production System)", this company has an organizational structure that enables cost reduction and improvement. And this is very unique feature of「Toyota Tsusho」that it does not exist in other general trading companies. At present, sales of their main business, the automobile export, has been increasing due to the improved performance of Japanese automobile manufacturers. 

 

 

 

3. Major Business

 

■ Automobile business 
They handle passenger cars, commercial vehicles, trucks, buses, material handling machines, motorcycles, spare parts, etc. 

■ Metal business
They handle steel and non-ferrous products through multiple strategic business units (SBUs).

■ Machines, energy and projects business
Not only machinery and equipment business for the automobile industry, but also construction machinery business, electric power business, energy business (natural gas, oil, coal), plant business.

■ Africa business
「Toyota Tsusho」conducts trade and investment from a long-term perspective in order to develop the African market. In 2012, they purchased CFAO, the largest trading company in France, which has strengths in Africa, and made it a wholly owned subsidiary in December 2016.

 

 

 

4. Financial information

 

※Unit is JPY million

		2016	2017	2018
Consolidated revenue		5,797,362	6,491,035	6,762,702
Consolidated operating profit		133,669	182,696	215,197
Consolidated total assets		4,212,064	4,310,043	4,441,464
Consolidated net assets		1,223,513	1,362,187	1,389,616
Breakdown of sales	Metal business	1,392,134	1,643,959	1,740,139
	Global product・Logistics business	751,675	830,513	882,551
	Automobile business	588,566	627,470	649,146
	Machinery・Energy・Plant business	723,047	938,072	947,586
	Chemicals・Electronics business	1,434,708	1,480,498	1,499,984
	Food・Living industry business	408,345	405,537	454,565
	Africa business	495,927	562,720	586,124
	Others	2,957	2,263	2,604