TOKYO — Mazda on Thursday posted a 7.59 billion yen ($73.4 million) operating loss in the three months ended Sept 30 as sales contracted amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The loss, calculated by Reuters from the company's half-year result, compares with an 18.9 billion profit in the same quarter last year and a 45.3 billion yen loss in the first three months of the business year, which was its worst in quarter in 11 years.

Construction machinery makers are adopting digital technologies to improve disaster recovery work.

This comes as Japan marks on Monday one year since Typhoon Hagibis made landfall in the country. The storm caused rivers to overflow, inflicting considerable damage.

Japan's Prime Minister Suga Yoshihide has sent a tweet wishing US President Donald Trump an early recovery from the coronavirus.

Suga wrote on Saturday that he was worried after reading Trump's tweet announcing that he and first lady Melania Trump had tested positive.

Japan's Prime Minister Suga Yoshihide says his government will do its utmost to rebuild the areas hit hard by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

Suga was speaking on Friday at the first meeting of his Cabinet's taskforce on reconstruction from the disaster.

Japan's Mitsui O.S.K. Lines has announced a support package worth more than 9 million dollars in the wake of a major oil spill off Mauritius.

A bulk carrier chartered by the company ran aground off the island nation in July.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe says his government will secure funds necessary to implement reconstruction projects in areas affected by the 2011 earthquake and tsunami.

Abe made the remark on Tuesday, at a joint meeting between the reconstruction taskforce and the nuclear disaster taskforce. His instruction comes one day before the ninth anniversary of the disaster in northeastern Japan.