Japan’s Nissan sees smaller loss, promises sales recovery

<p>TOKYO &mdash; Nissan reduced its losses in the January-March quarter as restructuring efforts kicked in, despite damage to sales from the coronavirus pandemic, the Japanese automaker said Tuesday. </p>
<p>Nissan Motor Co.’s quarterly losses totaled 81 billion yen ($743 million), a fraction of the 710 billion yen in red ink it racked up last year. Quarterly sales rose to 2.5 trillion yen ($23 billion) from 2.3 trillion yen. </p>
<p>Nissan Chief Executive Makoto Uchida forecast a recovery in this fiscal year, which began April 1. All automakers have suffered because of the pandemic, although some have proved more resilient than others. </p>
<p>“Despite very harsh conditions, we are definitely moving in the right direction,” he said in an online news conference. </p>
<p>“Along with all our global workers passionately tackling our restructuring efforts, we will bring back a glorious Nissan.” </p>
<p>Nissan projects its global vehicle sales will climb nearly 9% to 4.4 million vehicles from 4 million vehicles sold in the fiscal year that just ended.</p>
<p>Vehicles sales are expected to rise in North America, Japan and China, the company said. </p>
<p>But Nissan still expects to post a 60 billion yen ($550 million) loss for the fiscal year through March 2022. That’s an improvement over its 449 billion yen ($4.1 billion) loss for the previous year. </p>
<p>The maker of the Leaf electric car and Infiniti luxury models reported an even bigger loss of 671 billion yen in the year before. </p>
<p>“There is continued business risk due to semiconductor supply shortages and raw material price hikes in this fiscal year,” the company said in a statement.</p>
<p>Uchida said the Rogue crossover was doing well in the U.S. market, while new models were in the works worldwide, including electric vehicles. </p>
<p>The Yokohama-based manufacturer has seen its brand tarnished by a high-profile scandal involving its former Chairman Carlos Ghosn, who was sent in by alliance partner Renault in 1999 to lead Nissan. </p>
<p>Ghosn was arrested in late 2018 on charges of under-reporting his future compensation. He fled to Lebanon while out on bail in late 2019. Ghosn says he is innocent.</p>
<p>Toyota Motor Corp. reports its fiscal results on Wednesday, while Honda Motor Co. reports on Friday. </p>
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<p>Yuri Kageyama is on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/yurikageyama">https://twitter.com/yurikageyama</a> </p>