"We will continue to deliver good results," promises Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn.
Nissan Motor Co. broke step with its two largest Japanese rivals, both of which recently reported sharp third-quarter earnings declines. Nissan, however, saw its earnings surge 78%, while boosting its forecast for the full fiscal year.
Nissan says it earned 80.07 billion yen for the October-December quarter, or $970 million, up from 45 billion yen during the third quarter of its previous fiscal year. That was well ahead of industry analysts’ earlier forecasts.
Sales and revenues, meanwhile, jumped 5%, to 2.1 trillion yen. Unit sales surged 14%, to 1.01 million vehicles.
The earnings report was the latest in a string of good developments for the maker, based in Yokohama, Japan. It recently announced its sales had surpassed those of rival Honda, making it the second-largest of the Japanese automakers. It’s most recent quarterly profit increase counters the double-digit declines reported for the period by both Honda and the industry giant, Toyota.
“Though we foresee risks in rising commodity prices and exchange rate volatility in the fourth quarter, we will continue to deliver good results,” said Nissan President Carlos Ghosn, who serves as chairman and CEO for both Nissan and its French partner and main shareholder, Renault SA.
Like its global rivals, Nissan is struggling against a variety of headwinds, notably including not only rising commodity costs but also the sharp run-up of the yen. But unlike Toyota, which depends on Japanese plants for nearly half its production, Nissan builds only slightly more than a quarter of its vehicles in the home market.
(Click Here for more on Toyota’s earnings slide.)
That’s one reason the maker is optimistic it will be able to boost earnings to 315 billion yen, or $3.8 billion, during the final quarter of the fiscal year, which ends March 31st. It earlier had projected full-year earnings of 270 billion yen.
Nissan continues to expand its presence in emerging markets, while boosting its line-up in countries where it is already well-established. And it is positioning itself as a major player in the nascent battery-electric market. But it has gotten off to a slow production start with the Leaf battery car and is hoping to get on track only by mid-year. (For more on Leaf’s slow ramp-up, Click Here.)