Nissan cuts annual operating profit forecast by 14.5% on falling sales From Reuters

TOKYO (Reuters) – Nissan Motor cut its forecast for annual operating profit by 14.5 percent, citing lower-than-expected sales and other factors.

Japan’s third-largest automaker by volume now estimates operating profit of 530 billion yen ($3.43 billion) instead of 620 billion yen for the year ended March. Net profit is now estimated at 370 billion yen instead of 390 billion yen.

Nissan said vehicle sales would be 3.44 million units for the year, cutting its forecast just two months after a downward revision to 3.55 million units due to the group’s weak performance in China.

Makoto Uchida, Nissan’s CEO, said at a press conference that the effects of increased competition in the US market, the New Year earthquake on Japan’s Noto Peninsula and a ship outage in the Red Sea have affected sales.

Nissan’s quarterly sales performance was also affected by stronger-than-expected demand for hybrid models in the United States, Uchida added, which benefited Japanese rival Toyota.

(Translated by Enrico Sciacovelli, edited by Sabina Suzzi)