Nissan Motor has reported an operating profit of 153.3 billion yen ($1.37 billion) for quarter ending June 30, 2017 (Q1), a 12.8 per cent decrease over the figure of 175.8 billion yen ($1.57 billion) during the same period last year.

The company also revealed net revenues of 2.76 trillion yen ($24.7 billion), which displayed an increase of 4 per cent compared to a total of 2.654 trillion yen ($23.8 billion) during the same period in the previous year.

The net income dropped 1.1 per cent to 134.9 billion yen from 136.4 billion yen, it said.

Overall, results were in line with the company’s expectations for the first quarter and the company expects improved profitability for the remainder of the year driven by its product cadence, said a statement.

The drop in operating profits was due to the conditional change resulting from the divestiture of Calsonic Kansei, rising raw material costs, and adverse foreign exchange impacts.

For the first quarter, Nissan total unit sales were 1.351 million units, an increase of 5 per cent. Sales in Japan continued to improve following the resumption of Kei car sales and encouraging strong demand for registered vehicles, including models such as the Note e-POWER and the Serena with ProPilot autonomous drive technology. Nissan saw unit sales rise by 45.6 per cent to 131,000 units, resulting in a market share improvement of 2.6 points to 10.9 per cent.

In the US, Nissan’s sales increased 1.2 per cent to 403,000, equivalent to a market share increase of 0.4 points to 9.1 per cent, amid continued demand for SUVs including the Rogue and recently launched Rogue Sport.

Nissan unit sales in China, which reports figures on a calendar year basis, increased 5.3 per cent to 314,000 units. The market share in China was flat at 4.7 per cent for the quarter.

In Europe, including Russia, Nissan’s sales totalled 185,000 units, an increase of 1.1 per cent.

Excluding Russia, Nissan’s sales decreased 0.2 per cent to 162,000 units due primarily to planned model changeovers. Nissan’s market share in Europe was flat at 3.6 per cent.

In other markets, including Asia and Oceania, Latin America, the Middle East and Africa, Nissan’s sales increased 1.2 per cent to 188,000 units despite volatile demand in some markets.

As previously stated this past May, the company expects to sell 5.83 million units in fiscal 2017 as models such as the Rogue Sport, refreshed Qashqai and X-Trail, Kicks, Navara, and the all-new Nissan LEAF are expected to contribute to sales growth for the year as a whole, it stated. – TradeArabia News Service