Isuzu Motors Ltd. expects to return to the black in the year to March 2004 with a group net profit of 35 billion yen, company officials said Friday.

The truck maker suffered a consolidated net loss of 144.3 billion yen in the fiscal year that ended on March 31, due to massive restructuring costs involved in the abolition of 4,000 jobs worldwide and withdrawing its manufacturing lines from the United States.

For fiscal 2003, reduced operating costs and thriving truck sales in Japan, China and Thailand will help boost the firm's profits, said Isuzu President Yoshinori Ida.

Isuzu also forecasts a consolidated pretax profit of 40 billion yen, up from a consolidated pretax loss of 4.2 billion yen in fiscal 2002. Its consolidated operating profit will also increase, rising to 50 billion yen in fiscal 2003 from a consolidated operating profit of 15.46 billion yen the previous year.

But group sales will drop 7.4 percent from fiscal 2002 to 1.25 trillion yen in fiscal 2003, due to an anticipated fall in sales in North America and the withdrawal of two diesel engine firms -- one in Poland and the other in the U.S. -- as subsidiaries, company officials said.

In terms of volume, Isuzu's overseas sales are expected to drop 13.9 percent from the previous year to 186,000 units in fiscal 2003.

But domestic sales will rise 16.1 percent to 72,000 units, the firm said, as customers buy new trucks that meet tougher exhaust gas emission regulations for diesel vehicles, which will take effect in October in the Tokyo metropolitan area.