Nissan woes deepen triggering more job losses

Nissan has announced it will slash another 11,000 jobs globally and close seven factories as it continues to fight for its life.

By its own admission, profits were down an incredible 88 per cent in the last 12 months to March, while operating profits had fallen to 69.8 billion yen ($A733.5 million).

Worse still, Nissan expects a 200 billion yen ($A2.1b) operating loss in the next quarter.

Causing most of the damage to Nissan’s bottom line are abysmal sales in the US and China – the original trigger for the proposed-now-failed merger with Honda, forcing the ousting of the car-maker's previous CEO.

His replacement, Ivan Espinosa, said Nissan’s turnaround now hinges on finding cost savings amounting to 500 billion yen ($A5.3b).

“Our full-year financial results are a wake-up call. The reality is very clear. Our variable costs are rising. Our fixed costs are higher than our current revenue can support,” he told the press after announcing the new emergency cost-cutting measures.

Previously, Nissan said it would cut 9000 jobs, with the new cuts ramping that figure up to around 20,000 losses in total – it’s unclear how many Australian jobs are on the line.

The number of Nissan plants will now fall from 17 to just 10 globally.

The brand said it also plans to reduce the complexity of parts by 70 per cent but did not explain how this would be achieved, nor which factories would be shuttered.

Since the Nissan crisis begun, much of the blame behind the car-maker's financial dire straits are said to stem from the previous regime under former chairman Carlos Ghosn who was said to have focused too heavily on high sales volumes that demanded big discounts to drive volume.

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