Nissan, Japan's third-largest car maker, warned today of its first annual loss in 14 years and said that it would eliminate 20,000 jobs, mainly in Japan, to meet a 20 per cent cut in production next year.
The loss is the first since Carlos Ghosn, the chief executive, took the helm a decade ago, and its forecast of a 180 billion yen (£1.3 billion) loss for the year to the end of March comes only three months after he projected a Y270 billion profit.
Nissan said that the job cuts would come mostly through natural attrition in Japan and would be complete by the end of March next year.
It has already announced 1,200 job cuts at its UK plant in Sunderland
Last week Toyota tripled its annual operating loss forecast, citing a faster-than-expected sales slump in the US, Japanese and European markets.
Honda also cut its forecast last month; however, it expects to stay in the black.
Today's results are not good news for Renault, the French carmaker that owns 44 per cent of Nissan and in which, in turn, is 15 per cent owned by Nissan. Renault's own debts are rising.
As well as the global slump in demand for cars, hit first by rising fuel costs and then by inflation and the lack of consumer credit, Japanese carmakers have to battle with another problem, the soaring value of the yen against the dollar and most other currencies, that has made its cars seem relatively expensive.
Nissan’s shares have dived more than 70 per cent in the past 12 months, and Toyota and Honda are down 47 per cent and 30 per cent, respectively.
Nissan has shed $12 billion (£8 billion) in market value since Mr Ghosn arrived from Renault to rescue Nissan in 1999.
Nissan’s sales in the United States, its biggest market, fell 33 per cent last month, and by a similar rate in Japan.
For October-December, Nissan made an operating loss of Y99.2 billion and a net loss of Y83.2 billion.
A year ago, it made an operating profit of Y211.9 billion and net profit of Y132.2 billion.
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