Nissan said last week that it is to make further production cuts in Japan due to COVID-19 impacts on global vehicle demand.

Nissan said it will cut production at its three Japanese manufacturing facilities – Oppama, Tochigi and Kyushu – with new production suspensions planned on dates from June 29 through July 31.

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It follows similar production suspensions in May and earlier this month.

At Nissan's Kyushu plant (capacity 430,000 vehicles a year) night shift vehicle production will be suspended on the second production line on June 29 and 30. Also at Kyushu, night shift vehicle production will be suspended on the first production line from July 20 to 31, and on the second production line from July 1 to 31. The Kyushu plant makes the Rogue/X-Trail SUV which is shipped to the US – as Rogue – and seeing slow sales as the model is about to be renewed.

At the Oppama plant (capacity 240,000 vehicles pa; produces Nissan Leaf, Note, Sylphy) vehicle production will be suspended on July 20 and 27.

At the Tochigi plant (capacity 250,000 vehicles pa; Nissan makes Skyline, Fairlady Z, 370Z Roadster, GT-R, Fuga, Fuga Hybrid, Cima Hybrid, Infiniti QX70, Q70L, Q60, Q50) vehicle production will be suspended on July 3, 6, 10, 13, 17, 20, 23 and 24.

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The latest move from Nissan reflects weak demand for Nissan products at home and in major export markets. It is unsurprising given how far demand has fallen due to the COVID-19 crisis. Global light vehicle sales fell 33.8% in May to 4.9 million from 7.5 million a year ago and in Japan, the vehicle market plunged 45% in May.

GlobalData's base COVID-19 light vehicle sales scenario forecasts a fall of 17.2% on 2019 to 73.7 million sales in 2020. The hit to the market will be greater than the 2007/8 financial crisis.

All major automakers in Japan have made significant production cuts in previous months, including Toyota, Nissan, Honda, Mazda, Suzuki, Daihatsu and Mitsubishi, in response to plunging global demand and measures introduced by the Japanese government to help prevent the local spread of the disease.

For loss-making Nissan there is the additional factor that it is firmly in turnaround mode and now focused on aligning manufacturing activity to profitable sales rather than pushing product to market amid expansive volume targets.