Japanese automaker Nissan cuts 9,000 jobs as its vehicles fall short to sell
TOKYO — TOKYO (AP) — Nissan reported Thursday a deficit for the latest financial quarter as its vehicle sales sank while costs and inventory ballooned, prompting the Japanese automaker to slash 9,000 jobs.
Chief Executive Makoto Uchida said he was taking a 50% pay cut to receive responsibility for the dismal results, while promising that a turnaround was coming.
Nissan Motor Corp. announced a global workforce reduction of 9,000 people, or about 6% of its more than 133,000 employees, as well as a schedule to slash global production capacity by 20%.
Uchida declined to declare which regions will be affected by the cuts or provide specifics.
For the latest quarter through September, Nissan racked up a 9.3 billion yen ($60 million) deficit, a reversal from the 190.7 billion yen profits recorded the same quarter a year ago.
Quarterly sales fell to 2.9 trillion yen ($19 billion) from 3.1 trillion yen.
Uchida acknowledged Nissan didn’t respond quickly or flexibly enough to global changes, including economy tastes and soaring raw material costs.
“I receive this circumstance very seriously,” he told reporters. “Nissan will restructure its business to become leaner and more resilient.”
Nissan models did not sell well in the U.S., one of the most lucrative auto markets in the globe that’s recently been dominated by Ford, Toyota and Tesla.
All aspects of Nissan’s operations and plans will be under review, Uchida said.
Nissan, based in the port city of Yokohama, reported financial first half sales profits of 5.98 trillion yen ($39 billion), edging down 1% from the more than 6 trillion yen the same period last year.
Its April to September profits totaled 19.2 billion yen ($124 million), declining sharply from the 296.2 billion yen earned over the six months last year.
Nissan lowered its sales profits approximate for the financial year through March 2025 to 12.7 trillion yen ($82 billion) from an earlier projection for 14 trillion yen ($91 billion).
It did not provide a net profits approximate, citing uncertainty. It promised to provide a profits approximate as soon as feasible. Earlier, Nissan was forecasting an annual profits of 300 billion yen ($1.9 billion).
Nissan now expects to sell 3.4 million vehicles around the globe in the financial year ending in March 2025, down from an earlier projected 3.65 million vehicles. The recent number is about the same that Nissan sold last financial year.
Nissan said it’s appointing a chief act officer tasked with turnaround selection-making, who will commence his job next month.
No dividends will be paid out, given the harsh results.
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Yuri Kageyama is on X: https://x.com/yurikageyama
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