Nissan’s quarterly revenue fell 68% within the final quarter

TOKYO — Nissan’s revenue fell 68% within the final quarter as a scarcity of pc chips hindered the Japanese automaker’s skill to ship autos to its prospects.

Nissan Motor Co. reported Wednesday that its revenue was 17.4 billion yen ($119 million) within the July-September, down from 54 billion yen the identical interval a 12 months earlier. Quarterly gross sales jumped to 2.5 trillion yen ($17 billion) from 1.9 trillion yen a 12 months in the past.

The corporate’s chief govt, Makoto Uchida, acknowledged the corporate faces numerous headwinds, together with a chips provide crunch that has slammed the worldwide auto trade amid lockdowns and different restrictions associated to the pandemic.

“However I can say our operations are undoubtedly bettering,” he instructed reporters.

Officers apologized to all those that needed to wait for his or her Nissan automobiles to be delivered due to the semiconductor scarcity.

On the plus facet, a weak yen has helped Japanese exporters, together with Nissan, by boosting the worth of abroad earnings when translated into yen.

However Uchida mentioned a unstable alternate price was extra of a danger due to Nissan’s widespread world operations. The U.S. greenback, at about 110 yen a 12 months in the past, is now buying and selling at almost 150 yen.

“We discover a steady foreign money as most fascinating,” mentioned Uchida.

The rising value of uncooked supplies, as inflation pressures unfold all over the world, is one other problem, based on Nissan, primarily based within the port metropolis of Yokohama.

Uchida and different firm officers declined touch upon Nissan’s talks with alliance associate Renault SA of France. He mentioned any determination on reshaping the alliance might be introduced.

Nissan’s model energy has been tarnished by a scandal centered round its former chairman, Carlos Ghosn, who was despatched in by Renault to steer Nissan for greater than twenty years.

Ghosn was arrested on numerous monetary misconduct prices in 2018, together with under-reporting his compensation. He jumped bail and fled in late 2019 to Lebanon, which has no extradition treaty with Japan. He says he’s harmless.

Nissan lowered its car gross sales outlook for the fiscal 12 months by means of March to three.7 million autos from an earlier projected 4 million autos. Nissan offered 3.8 million autos within the fiscal 12 months that resulted in March.

Nissan raised its annual revenue forecast to 155 billion yen ($1.1 billion) from an earlier 150 billion yen ($1 billion). Nissan, which makes the Z sportscar and X-Path sport utility autos, earned 215 billion yen within the final fiscal 12 months.

Nissan, which additionally makes the Leaf electrical automobile, mentioned it stays bullish about electrification. It believes that’s gaining momentum as environmental considerations unfold amongst customers.

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