Nissan Motor Co revised downward its earnings forecast for the full fiscal year after the yen surged against other major currencies and consumer appetite for cars waned owing to the global recession, the company said Monday, dpa reported.
Japan's third-largest automaker after Toyota Motor Corp and Honda Motor Co estimated it would incur an operating loss of 180 billion yen (1.96 billion dollars) for fiscal 2008 that ends in March, which would be the first operating loss for Nissan in 14 years.
It would also be the first loss since company president Carlos Ghosn took over the management and the company formed a partnership with France's Renault SA in 1999.
In October, Nissan expected to report an operating profit of 270 billion yen.
For the full year, the automaker projected a net loss of 265 billion yen and sales of 8.3 trillion yen, lowered from a net loss of 160 billion yen and sales of 9.6 trillion yen it had expected in October.
Nissan also plans to cut 20,000 workers worldwide by March 2010.
For the April-December period, Nissan reported an operating profit of 92.46 billion yen, down from 579.08 billion yen a year earlier, and a net profit of 43.18 billion yen, down from 344.64 billion yen.
Sales declined to 6.69 trillion yen for the nine months from 7.83 trillion yen during the same period a year before.