Nissan forecasts gloomier outlook on challenging conditions

Nissan Leaf

Nissan Motor Co is revising its sales forecast for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2019 on “consistently challenging” market conditions.

In a filing to the Tokyo Stock Exchange, Nissan revised its fiscal 2018 revenue forecast to 11.6 trillion yen (S$142.56 billion), down from 12 billion yen stated previously.

Operating profit was similarly revised downward to 450 billion yen, down from 540 billion yen in its previous forecast.

Nissan expects to sell 5.60 million vehicles in fiscal 2018, down from the 5.77 million it sold in 2017.

Looking at its third-quarter results, the Yokohama-headquartered firm generated an operating profit of 103.3 billion yen on net revenues of 3.05 trillion yen, equivalent to an operating margin of 3.4 percent.

That was up from revenue of 2.88 trillion yen and operating profit of 82.4 billion yen in the corresponding year-ago quarter.

Overall operations continued to improve in the third quarter, despite consistently challenging market conditions, the automaker said.

In Japan, China, Thailand, the Philippines and Latin America, Nissan’s vehicle sales outperformed the market, the company said in a press statement.

Over the first nine months of the 2018 fiscal year, global unit sales were 4.02 million units, a decrease of 2.1 percent.

The automaker said growth in Japan, China and other markets were offset by decreases in North America and Europe.

This translated to a global market share of 5.9 percent, down 0.1 percentage point from a year earlier.

The Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance sold a total of 10.76 million vehicles in calendar year 2018.

On April 1, 2017, Nissan embarked on Nissan M.O.V.E. to 2022: a six-year plan targeting a 30 percent increase in annualised revenues to 16.5 trillion yen by the end of fiscal 2022, along with cumulative free cash flow of 2.5 trillion yen.

That effort will be spearheaded by the Nissan Leaf, one of the best-selling electric vehicles in the world.