Nissan Motor Co. on Thursday upgraded its earnings forecast for fiscal 2023, with net profit projected at 390 billion yen ($2.6 billion) citing brisk sales and a weak yen. But the Japanese automaker also said it faces the "immediate task" of improving its business in China.

The profit estimate for the year through next March represents a 75.8 percent rise from the previous year. It was revised from a projection in July of 340 billion yen.

The company forecasts operating profit and sales at 620 billion yen and a record-high 13 trillion yen, respectively, also upgraded from 550 billion yen and 12.6 trillion yen.

With the weakening yen, it has now set the assumed exchange rate of the Japanese currency at 140 yen against the U.S. dollar and 153 yen versus the euro, revised from 132 yen and 139 yen, respectively. A weaker yen normally bloats Japanese exporters' overseas profits when repatriated.

For the first half ended in September, Nissan reported an over four-fold jump in net profit from a year earlier to 296.21 billion yen. Operating profit more than doubled to 336.74 billion yen on sales of 6.06 trillion yen, a record high and up 30.1 percent.

The yen's depreciation contributed to the rise of operating profit by 13.3 billion yen, it said.

Global unit sales increased 3.3 percent for the six months to 1.62 million cars, faring well in Japan, North America and Europe.

But Nissan struggled in China due to intensifying competition and a shift in the country to new energy vehicles such as electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids. In the world's largest auto market, it logged a 34.3 percent fall in unit sales.

To reverse the slump, Nissan said it plans to release four new models of new energy vehicles in China starting in the second half of 2024.

"By implementing our plans rapidly and reliably, we hope to improve our performance and put it back on track toward growth in the challenging Chinese market," Nissan President Makoto Uchida said at an online press conference.

The automaker maintained its full-year global sales target at 3.7 million units.

==Kyodo

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