Nissan sales suffer blow amid controversies and Coronavirus outbreak

Amid scandals over former Nissan executive Carlos Ghosn, the company has degraded into red ink in the latest quarter as its vehicle sales dropped globally. The Japanese automaker reported a loss of 26 billion yen for October-December in 2019 on February 13 as opposed to 70 billion yen profit which was recorded in 2018. According to international reports, the quarterly sales dipped at least 18 per cent to 2.5 trillion yen as Nissan's Motor Co's sales decreased in Japan, the United States, Europe, and China. 

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Further downward revisions expected

The Chief Executive of Nissan, Makoto Uchida told reporters at company's Yokohama headquarters that a plan to improve the condition is in progress and the details will be released in May. Uchida not only said that “situation has worsened” but also said that the company must look for the products in the future.

Furthermore, he also acknowledged that the results recorded on Thursday have still not considered the loss with Nissan's production halts in China amid the Coronavirus outbreak as it would further result in downward revisions. 

“The situation has worsened, but there is no moment to waste as we must keep investing in future products,” Uchida said. “We are headed in the right direction, but it will take time.” 

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Nissan's plants in China have been stopped their productions although the preparations are in place to resume the work. However, it still remains uncertain whether any plan with start working again not only just Nissan as well as other manufacturers based in China. Some part of productions was being scaled back at Nissan's Japan plant but according to the company, it will probably happen in the upcoming month. 

Nissan has also slashed its profit forecast for the fiscal year through March 2020 to 65 million yen since it fell far short from the earlier forecast of 110 billion yen profit. The company now reportedly expects to sell more than five million vehicles around the world for the fiscal year which is also a decrease of four per cent from the previous forecast. Moreover, Nissan shareholders will get zero yen in dividends for the latest quarter. 

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(With AP inputs)