Both Nissan and Mazda on Thursday held steady their earnings forecasts for the fiscal year started April despite posting slight revenue growth in the April- June quarter, underlining the automakers’ cautious outlook, Dow Jones reported.
The news agency said the companies’ conservative views reflect signs of decreasing demand from the US market at a time when the car market back home in Japan remains sluggish. Japanese car exports to the US decreased 2.3% in June, the second straight month of falls, Dow Jones noted, citing industry data.
Ford affiliate Mazda group revenue came to Y571.94 billion in the quarter, an increase of 10% from Y517.90 billion a year earlier, Dow Jones said, representing 24% of its targeted revenue of Y2.42 trillion for the current fiscal year ending March 2004.
Nissan reported group revenue of Y1.65 trillion for the April-June quarter, but didn’t give a year-on-year comparison because it has just started to record quarterly earnings, the report added.
Renault affiliate Nissan said it sold 700,215 cars worldwide in the period, an increase of 2.7% from a year earlier, Dow Jones added, noting that neither Mazda nor Nissan provided profit figures for the April-June quarter.
Dow Jones said Nissan’s exports to the US increased 7.6% year on year to 200,706 units during the quarter, while sales in Japan dropped 5.9% to 169,786 units in the same period.
