Nissan Motor Co. reported Thursday a net loss of 671.22 billion yen ($6.2 billion) for fiscal 2019 and laid out more cost-cutting steps as it grapples with the novel coronavirus pandemic and excessive production capacity from the expansionist era of former boss Carlos Ghosn.

The automaker saw its first full-year red ink in 11 years in the year ended March, nearing the scale of its 684.36 billion yen loss in fiscal 1999, when Ghosn was sent from Renault SA of France to rescue the Japanese carmaker from the brink of bankruptcy.

On top of sagging sales, it attributed the loss to 603 billion yen of booked costs related to restructuring measures and impairment losses. Nissan reported a profit of 319.14 billion yen a year ago.

The company withheld its earnings outlook for the current year, citing uncertainties posed by the coronavirus.

Even before the pandemic dented consumer demand and led to the suspension of output, Nissan had been reeling from the arrest and ouster of Ghosn in 2018 for alleged financial misconduct.

In a change of direction, the automaker is departing from the aggressive expansionist strategy pursued by Ghosn that led to excessive manufacturing capacity and a ballooning of its fixed costs.

Its new medium-term strategic plan for the four years through March 2024, unveiled Thursday, includes "right-sizing" Nissan's production capacity by 20 percent to 5.4 million vehicles a year, the closure of a manufacturing facility in Indonesia and focusing on a plant in Thailand as its single production base in Southeast Asia.

Nissan also intends to close its Barcelona plant and withdraw from South Korea. It will pull out from its Datsun business in Russia selling low-cost models resuscitated for emerging markets under Ghosn in 2014.

"We will admit our mistakes and correct ourselves to get on the right path," said Nissan CEO Makoto Uchida in an online press conference. "We will implement structural reforms by concentrating and selecting our resources."

By taking such measures, the automaker expects to see a 300 billion yen reduction in fixed costs in fiscal 2020 compared with fiscal 2018.

The latest plan builds on restructuring measures laid out in July last year, including a cut of 12,500 jobs, or nearly 10 percent of its total global workforce, by March 2023 at 14 production bases with low output.

Uchida declined to comment on the future job cuts but sources close to the matter have told Kyodo News that Nissan is looking to increase the workforce cut to more than 20,000.

"We need to discuss the matter with labor unions and relevant governments," Uchida said.

On Wednesday, Nissan and its alliance partners Renault and Mitsubishi Motors Corp. said they would make their partnership work more efficiently by sharing parts and new model development costs, in a sign of urgency as they race for survival in the fast-evolving auto industry that is shifting to electric and self-driving vehicles.

Under its new working plan, Nissan will focus on its core operations in the Japanese, Chinese and North American markets, while leveraging assets from Renault and Mitsubishi Motors to maintain its business in South America, Southeast Asia and Europe.

==Kyodo

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