Nissan Motor Co. on Tuesday reported a return to profitability in its fiscal third quarter as cost cuts and sales growth in China offset the impact of a strong yen, prompting the company to raise its full-year outlook.
Japan's third-largest automobile manufacturer by volume posted a net profit of 45 billion yen ($503.9 million) in the three months ended Dec. 31, improving from a net loss of 83.16 billion yen a year earlier and beating a 19.9 billion-yen profit forecast of analysts polled by Thomson Reuters.
"Our performance in the third quarter of fiscal 2009 is encouraging, demonstrating that our countermeasures are working," Nissan President and Chief Executive Carlos Ghosn said in a statement.
For the current fiscal year to March 31, Nissan, which is 44%-owned by European counterpart Renault SA, said it now expects a net profit of 35 billion yen, compared with its earlier forecast of a 40 billion-yen net loss.
This makes Nissan the latest Japanese car maker to upgrade its full-year forecast, following solid earnings from Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co. last week.
The results come as Japan's auto industry continues to recover, helped by more streamlined operations and rebounding sales at home and abroad.
Overseas rivals such as Ford Motor Co. and Hyundai Motor Co. also have reported solid earnings in the past few weeks.
Nissan lifted its global sales forecast to 3.48 million vehicles from 3.3 million and its global production estimate to 3.29 million vehicles from 3.17 million.
Its October-December vehicle sales in the U.S., Japan, Europe and China all recorded double-digit increases from a year earlier.
Chief Operating Officer Toshiyuki Shiga said, however, noted that government support measures such as incentives to scrap older vehicles will expire in major markets this year.
"We did post good figures in our earnings results, but I don't yet have a good sense of market recovery," Mr. Shiga said at a news conference.
There is growing uncertainty in the industry over the impact of quality-control issues at Toyota, which is struggling to cope with a global recall affecting more than eight million vehicles.
Executives from Japanese auto makers have said recently that the turmoil at Toyota could tarnish the image of Japan's auto industry as a whole.
While Mr. Shiga stopped short of commenting on whether Toyota's recalls will have any effect on his company's sales, Nissan will continue its efforts to improve the safety and quality of its products, he said.
During the just-ended quarter, Nissan's sales rose 9.9% to 1.996 trillion yen from 1.816 trillion yen, while operating profit reached 134.07 billion yen, reversing a 99.19 billion-yen operating loss from a year earlier.
For the full fiscal year, the maker of the Altima sedan, Tiida subcompact and the recently developed Leaf electric car raised its operating-profit forecast to 290 billion yen from 120 billion yen and its sales projection to 7.4 trillion yen from seven trillion yen.
(Source: irco.biz)
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