Nissan Motor Co. said Tuesday it expects a net loss of 670 billion yen ($6.4 billion) this business year for the second straight year of red ink, as the coronavirus pandemic will keep auto demand sluggish, adding pressure on the carmaker already struggling to recover profitability since the arrest of former boss Carlos Ghosn.

Nissan projects a record group operating loss of 470 billion yen for the year ending next March on sales of 7.8 trillion yen, down 21.0 percent, as its global sales are seen falling 16.3 percent to 4.13 million vehicles, roughly the same pace of decline it expects in global auto demand.

The group net loss forecast nears a loss of 671.22 billion yen last fiscal year and may come close to the record 684.36 billion yen loss incurred in fiscal 1999 when Ghosn joined Nissan to save the company, as the outlook is based on a scenario in which there will be no second wave of the pandemic during the current business year.

The outlook means Nissan, Japan's third largest carmaker by volume, will remain unprofitable for two straight years for the first time in 20 years.

It would be another harsh year for Nissan following the first full-year red ink in 11 years and the biggest loss in 20 years the previous year on hefty restructuring costs and a market downturn.

"It will be an extremely tough year," Nissan CEO Makoto Uchida said during an online press conference. "Sales in the United States in the past two months have been severe."

"We hope to see vehicle sales recover to the year-earlier level by the fourth quarter at the latest," he said.

For the April to June quarter, Nissan saw a group net loss of 285.59 billion yen, plunging from a profit of 6.38 billion yen a year earlier. It was the first red ink in the quarter since 2009 in the aftermath of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.'s collapse the previous year.

Nissan logged an operating loss of 153.93 billion yen, compared with a profit of 1.61 billion yen. Sales came in at 1.17 trillion yen, down 50.5 percent.

Nissan has been taking steps to depart from the expansionist strategy led by Ghosn, who was arrested and ousted in November 2018 for alleged financial misconduct.

In its revised four-year business plan through fiscal 2023 released in May, it said it will cut 300 billion yen in fixed costs from the level in fiscal 2018, and close plants in Spain and Indonesia to slash its annual production capacity by 20 percent.

The company plans to introduce 12 new models by around the end of next year, including the all-electric Ariya sport utility vehicle unveiled recently, as it tries to survive the difficult market environment fast evolving toward autonomous, connected and electrified vehicles.

==Kyodo

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