TOKYO: Japan’s Honda Motor on Friday reported a smaller-than-expected 6% fall in quarterly profit amid a prolonged chip shortage that has squeezed production and supply chain issues related to China’s COVID-19 curbs and the war in Ukraine.

Japan’s second biggest automaker by sales posted an operating profit of 199.5 billion yen ($1.55 billion) for the quarter ended on March 31, down from 213.2 billion yen a year earlier. That beat the 152.2 billion yen profit expected by nine analysts on average, Refinitiv Eikon data showed.

For the current fiscal year that began in April, Honda forecast operating profit will fall about 7% to 810 billion yen. Analysts had expected earnings to be 926.3 billion on average, according to Refinitiv.

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Owner of the best-selling Accord, Honda said on Thursday it would slash production by about a fifth at two of its domestic factories for the rest of May, a month after it cut back production by about a half at one of them.