Enabled by safer, more convenient vehicles that are consistent with the CASE concept of connected, autonomous, shared, electric vehicles as well as by information and communication technology (ICT) reforms, including mobility as a service (MaaS), the automobile industry is currently promoting migration towards a mobility-based society.
Although overall vehicle production worldwide had been showing solid year-on-year growth, it fell significantly in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and other factors. Despite some signs of recovery, as of the end of 2022, vehicle production is still down sharply from pre-COVID levels. While recovery and growth are anticipated over the medium term due to backlog demand and motorization in emerging markets, the fact remains that the external environment in which we do business is undergoing large-scale changes.
In light of this challenging environment, we will concentrate on reforming our revenue structure in FY2023 and beyond by promoting dramatic improvements in the profitability of each business, pursuing cost-related structural reforms, and streamlining our balance sheet to improve our financial structure and overall profitability.
Harada will continue to supply broad-ranging automotive antennas and related products as well as peripheral technologies, while closely monitoring changes in the external environment as well as the needs of our customers and markets.
In the face of such external changes, however, one factor remains as a constant—namely Harada’s manufacturing ethos, maintained since our founding in 1958 and the basis of our extensive track record as a world-leading manufacturer of automotive antennas.
While we must always adapt to the changing times, Harada will continue to uphold its values as we strive to fulfill our mission as a global leader in automotive antennas. Likewise, we will seek to add new dimensions to the automotive experience by advancing the use of connected technologies.