Nissan hikes net profit forecast again

TOKYO — Nissan on Tuesday hiked its annual net profit forecast again on strong interim results, aiming to weather the global chip crunch as it shifts focus to electric vehicles.

The Japanese car company’s earnings have been boosted by a weaker yen, but the semiconductor shortage has hit its production figures and analysts warn the chip crisis may take longer than expected to resolve.

"Given the unpredictable environment surrounding us, we are approaching a period ahead of us with cautious optimism," Chief Operating Officer Ashwani Gupta told reporters.

With global demand for cars currently sky-high, "our problem isn't how many we want to sell. Our problem is how many we can produce", he said.

Nissan now expects an annual net profit to March 2022 of 205 billion yen ($1.77 billion), having already tripled its yearly profit outlook in November to 180 billion yen.

The automaker, which has faced a series of trials in recent years including weak demand and fallout from the arrest of former boss Carlos Ghosn, said its cost-cutting recovery plan had improved the profitability of its sales.

The "ongoing depreciation of the yen and a review of the impact of rising raw material prices" will also help it reach its targets, Nissan said in a statement.

It still aims to sell 3.8 million vehicles by the end of March — a target earlier revised down from 4.4 million — as the chip shortage and the spread of the Omicron coronavirus variant continue to impact plant operations.

Electric vehicles 

Nissan reported a net profit of 201.3 billion yen in April-December 2021, compared with a net loss of 367.7 billion yen in the same period the previous year, when virus lockdowns hit the auto industry hard.

It also saw a year-on-year increase in revenue during the nine-month period, although revenue in the third quarter was slightly down at 2.2 trillion yen.

Nissan said its nine-month results were boosted by "favourable market conditions in the United States" and improvement in the quality of sales across the board.

This created "a significant increase in net revenue per unit of major, new models", while strict financial discipline also helped hike profits.

Satoru Takada, an auto analyst at research and consulting firm TIW, said ahead of Tuesday's results that a good sales environment had allowed Nissan to avoid big discounts.

"What remains to be seen is whether it can stay competitive in the long run, especially once rival companies start using more incentives," he said.

But Takada warned that the semiconductor situation "might take longer than expected" to improve as companies in different industries compete for the essential components.

Last month, Nissan and its alliance partners Renault and Mitsubishi Motors pledged to boost cooperation as they plough more than $25 billion into the development of electric vehicles over the next five years.

Major global carmakers are increasingly prioritising electric and hybrid vehicles as concern about climate change grows.

Some of the headline figures had already been announced by each company, but it marks the first concrete target set collectively by the trio since the reorganisation of top executives at Nissan and France's Renault.

That restructuring was triggered by the saga surrounding the 2018 arrest of Ghosn, which exposed rifts in the alliance.