<p>Honda Motor Co on Friday reported a rebound to profit for the fourth quarter helped by cost cuts but warned semiconductor shortages and higher raw material costs would curb growth in the current year.</p>.<p>Its forecast for operating profit for the year that began on April 1 of 660 billion yen ($6.04 billion) was short of the 791.7 billion forecast by analysts, SmartEstimate data showed.</p>.<p>Honda, like its global peers, has been struggling to ramp up car production due to a shortage of chips, exacerbated by a fire at Renesas Electronic Corp's chip plant in Japan and blackouts in Texas where a number of chipmakers have factories.</p>.<p>Competitor Toyota gave a more upbeat forecast for the full fiscal year, confident it can tackle a global chip shortage that has stung its rivals.</p>.<p>Nissan, Japan's No.3 automaker, on Tuesday predicted it will break even, defying expectations for a return to profitability.</p>.<p>Honda plans to sell 5 million vehicles this business year, up from 4.5 million in the previous 12 months.</p>.<p>In the three months to March 31 Japan's No.2 carmaker by sales posted an operating profit of 213.2 billion yen ($1.95 billion) following a 5.6 billion yen loss a year earlier. That result was better than a consensus estimate of 107.4 billion yen profit from nine analysts surveyed by SmartEstimate. </p>
<p>Honda Motor Co on Friday reported a rebound to profit for the fourth quarter helped by cost cuts but warned semiconductor shortages and higher raw material costs would curb growth in the current year.</p>.<p>Its forecast for operating profit for the year that began on April 1 of 660 billion yen ($6.04 billion) was short of the 791.7 billion forecast by analysts, SmartEstimate data showed.</p>.<p>Honda, like its global peers, has been struggling to ramp up car production due to a shortage of chips, exacerbated by a fire at Renesas Electronic Corp's chip plant in Japan and blackouts in Texas where a number of chipmakers have factories.</p>.<p>Competitor Toyota gave a more upbeat forecast for the full fiscal year, confident it can tackle a global chip shortage that has stung its rivals.</p>.<p>Nissan, Japan's No.3 automaker, on Tuesday predicted it will break even, defying expectations for a return to profitability.</p>.<p>Honda plans to sell 5 million vehicles this business year, up from 4.5 million in the previous 12 months.</p>.<p>In the three months to March 31 Japan's No.2 carmaker by sales posted an operating profit of 213.2 billion yen ($1.95 billion) following a 5.6 billion yen loss a year earlier. That result was better than a consensus estimate of 107.4 billion yen profit from nine analysts surveyed by SmartEstimate. </p>