Nissan Motor on Friday announced a production cut of another 72,000 units on top of its half-year announcement of 65,000 units in Japan as part of a 200,000-unit global output cut.
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The automaker said it would next month reduce line speed and impose non-production days at its Tochigi and Kyushu plants and take four shifts out of the Oppama schedule. The latter plant builds smaller cars such as the March (aka Micra), Tiida (aka Versa) and Note.
Local reports said Tochigi, north of Tokyo, makes 95% of the Infiniti luxury brand models exported to North America while Kyushu in southern Japan makes sports utility vehicles such as the recently remodelled Murano, sold mainly in North America.
There would consequently be no-production days at the Iwaki and Yokohama engine plants in December.
“In light of declining sales in major global markets, the production cut is necessary in order to manage inventory levels and ensure a balanced production supply,” the automaker said.
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By GlobalDataIt added that it would maintain 1,000 temporary workers to the end of 2008 but reduce this to 500 for 2009.
A spokeswoman was quoted as saying the latest production cut had been factored into its lowered profit forecasts for 2008/09.
Nissan last month more than halved its operating profit forecast for the year to 31 March to JPY270bn ($2.78bn) and said it would cut 2,500 permanent jobs overseas and 1,000 temporary workers in Japan.
