Honda third quarter net up

TOKYO (Reuters) - Honda Motor Co. posted a smaller-than-expected rise in quarterly profit, helped by brisk sales in Europe and a weak yen that offset a dip in U.S. sales -- where Honda could not keep up with demand -- and nudged its full-year forecast higher.

The world's second-most valuable carmaker with a market worth of $72 billion, is riding demand for its popular small and fuel-efficient cars amid high energy prices -- so much so that its supply line fell short in the U.S. in recent quarters.

Honda has said the bottleneck is easing as it rejigs production in North America to build more of its hot-selling Civic cars from April. A new plant in Indiana is also slated to start next year in anticipation of further demand growth.

Like other Asian car makers, Honda is winning global buyers, and record profits, with solid products such as its CR-V crossover and Fit subcompact, while big U.S. rivals are losing customers and burning through cash as they restructure their North American operations.

Ford Motor Co. last week booked a net quarterly loss of almost $5.8 billion -- more than Honda is likely to make in the full year to end-March.

Honda, which overtook Nissan Motor Co. as Japan's No.2 automaker last year, increased its full-year net profit forecast to 560 billion yen ($4.61 billion) from a previous 555 billion yen. Market forecasts are for 567 billion yen, according to Reuters Estimates.

It kept its full-year operating profit forecast unchanged at 820 billion yen.

October-December net profit rose 8.8 percent to 144.83 billion yen ($1.19 billion), but lagged an average estimate for 153.6 billion yen in a survey of five brokers by Reuters Estimates. Operating profit was up 5.2 percent to 205.11 billion yen, below market estimates for 215 billion yen.