Bridgestone Corp. on Thursday slashed its consolidated earnings forecasts for the business year to Dec. 31, after a scandal over faulty tires in the United States and elsewhere gouged the group's net profits by more than 80 percent from the initial projection.
Bridgestone said its consolidated net profits for the current year are expected to come to 13 billion yen, down 80.6 percent from the estimated 67 billion yen released in late August and about 85 percent lower than in 1999.
In August, Bridgestone's U.S. subsidiary, Bridgestone/Firestone Inc., announced a recall of 6.5 million ATX and Wilderness ATX tires over more than 100 traffic deaths allegedly caused by the tread peeling off the tires.