10/26/07

Nissan Quarterly Sales Show Japanese Top Three Healthy

Weakness in the Japanese home auto market was supposed to hurt the island's automakers. Third place Nissan was said to be vulnerable.

Maybe that argument was overstated.

Nissan Motor Co. reported a 27% drop in net profit for its July-September quarter, but managed to post a group net profit of $1.05 billion.

The company did not lower its $4.20 billion profit forecast for the year ending March 2008.

Global sales rose 6.6% to 941,000 vehicles.

The U.S. trend toward smaller cars boosted Altima coupe and Versa sales. Nissan's North American sales grew 4% to 320,000 units.

Nissan did very well in emerging markets, including Russia and China.

"Nissan is back on track towards sustainable
profitable growth... expect more in the second half."

Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn

Toyota is expected to report record profits on Nov. 7.