Nissan posts $1 billion profit in Q1 thanks to US sales

Tokyo, Jul 28 (EFE).- Japanese carmaker Nissan Motor has registered a net profit of 114.5 billion yen ($1.04 billion) for the April-June period, in contrast with the 285.6 million yen net loss it posted in the same period last year, largely thanks to a good performance in the United States market.

Japan’s second largest carmaker on Wednesday also announced that during the first quarter of the Japanese fiscal year ending in June, it achieved a gross operating profit of 90.3 billion yen, compared to the loss of 232.3 billion yen between April-June 2020.

Moreover, the company posted an operating profit of 75.7 billion yen ($689 million), up from an operating loss of 153.9 billion yen in the Q1 of 2020-2021.

Nissan’s performance was helped by a net revenue of around 2 trillion yen during the year, a 71.02 percent jump year-on-year.

“Profitability improved as Nissan continued to improve the performance in the US market,” the company said in a statement Wednesday.

“Nissan also made effective use of its inventory and conducted strategic production during the first quarter, which minimized the impact of the semiconductor shortage and contributed to operating profit,” it added.

The Yokohama-based carmaker admitted that the ongoing bottleneck in the supply of semiconductors, which has hit the entire automobile industry, could “significantly” affect sales in the July-September quarter.

However, it ruled out a major slump and hiked the forecast for the current fiscal year due to the improved pandemic situation, especially in developed economies.

Instead of a net loss of 60 billion yen ($545 million), forecast in May, the company now expects to post the same amount in net profit.

Similarly, a forecast of near-zero operating profit has been replaced by a prediction of 150 billion yen for the financial year ending in March 2022.