Nissan swings to Q4 profit, beats estimates

Nissan Motor Co said on Thursday it swung to a profit in the fourth quarter, as cost cuts and a sliding yen helped the Japanese automaker cushion the impact of rising material costs and reduced output due to supply chain disruption.

Nissan reported a 56 billion yen ($433 million) operating profit for the quarter ended on March 31, beating an average 38.3 billion yen profit forecast from eight analysts polled by Refinitiv.

It reported an operating loss of 19 billion yen in the same period a year earlier.

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Japan's third-largest carmaker estimated operating profit this fiscal year will rise to 250 billion yen, below the 318.5 billion yen mean estimate from 19 analysts polled by Refinitiv.

Like other automakers, Nissan faces the double challenge of rising material costs and supply chain disruptions worsened by Covid-19 lockdowns in China.

It expects the market environment for the current business year to be "more severe" than the last fiscal year for those reasons, as well as the crisis in Ukraine, it said in a statement.

Its bigger rival, Toyota Motor, warned on Wednesday "unprecedented" hikes in raw material costs could slice a fifth off full-year profit.

Nissan said previously the world semiconductor shortage caused its global production to fall for a fourth consecutive business year, with the latest decline being 11 drop year on year.