Strong global sales drive Nissan Q3 profit higher

tokyo — Nissan reported on Thursday that its October-December profit rose 3.5 per cent from last year as vehicle sales climbed in all major markets.

Nissan Motor Co, based in the Japanese port city of Yokohama, reported a fiscal third quarter profit of ¥131.7 billion ($1.2 billion), up from ¥127.2 billion the same period a year ago.

Nissan, which makes the March subcompact, Leaf electric car and Infiniti luxury models, sold more vehicles in Japan, North America, Europe and Asia for the quarter compared to the previous year.

The company sold 1.09 million vehicles worldwide during the quarter, up from 1.02 million. Quarterly sales slipped 2.2 per cent to ¥2.94 trillion ($26 billion). The automaker kept its annual forecasts unchanged, projecting ¥525 billion ($4.7 billion) profit, up slightly from the previous fiscal year, on ¥11.8 trillion ($105 billion) sales, down 3.2 per cent. “We expect to deliver solid earnings and strong free cash flow generation for fiscal year 2016,” said Nissan chief executive Carlos Ghosn.

Worries have risen lately over whether President Donald Trump may target Japanese automakers over the lopsided auto trade. Trump has criticised Toyota Motor’s plan to build a plant in Mexico. Nissan Corporate vice- president Joji Tagawa said there were no changes so far to Nissan’s production plans in North America. — AP