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TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s Nissan Motor Co on Thursday reported a lower-than-expected 6. 4% rise in operating profit for the December quarter, saying it would improve its full-year outlook, with a more beneficial product mix offsetting a drop in the total. Vehicle sales forecast for the year.
Operating profit amounted to 141. 6 billion yen ($951. 80 million) for the three months ended Dec. 31, with an average estimate of 179. 8 billion yen, according to a vote of nine analysts via LSEG.
The automaker maintained its operating profit forecast of 620 billion yen for the current fiscal year.
It revised its retail sales forecast for the current fiscal year to 3. 55 million vehicles, from 3. 7 million expected in the past, due to lower sales expectations in all markets.
“We are operating with discipline,” Nissan Chief Financial Officer Stephen Ma told a news conference.
The lower sales forecasts reflected challenges such as intensifying competition and logistics issues around the company’s key markets, including China, Ma added.
Nissan’s global sales grew 4.6% to some 3.3 million vehicles in 2023, it said last month, as a stronger performance in North America and Europe offset falling demand for its cars in the world’s top auto market China amid fierce competition from Chinese brands.
Sales in China fell 16% in 2023 to fewer than 800,000 cars, a trend that has helped the United States, the automaker’s largest market, with sales rising 23% to about 900,000 cars last year.
Nissan has pledged in the past to invest up to 600 million euros ($646. 80 million) in Ampere, the electric vehicle business of his former spouse Renault.
The French automaker’s decision to cancel Ampere’s initial public offering would delay Nissan’s investments in the unit, Renault Chairman Jean-Dominique Senard said last week.
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($1 = 148. 7700 yen)
(Reporting by Daniel Leussink; editing by Leslie Adler)