Latest news with #MakiShiraki
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Exclusive-Nissan offers buyouts to US workers, halts global pay rises, internal emails show
By Daniel Leussink and Maki Shiraki TOKYO (Reuters) -Japan's Nissan has started offering buyouts to U.S. workers and has suspended merit-based wage increases worldwide, internal emails reviewed by Reuters showed, as the automaker expands cost cuts amid weak performance in key markets. CEO Ivan Espinosa announced a new round of cost cuts this month that include closing seven production sites globally and cutting 11,000 more jobs, taking its total planned workforce reduction to around 20,000. As part of the cuts, Nissan has offered separation packages to workers at its Canton plant in Mississippi as well as to salaried workers in human resources, planning, information technology and finance, showed one email sent last week. "While substantial efforts have been made in the U.S. to help right-size Nissan, we need to take additional, limited, strategic action here at a local level," Nissan Americas Chairman Christian Meunier said in the email. The plan is "crucial for Nissan's comeback," he said. Reuters could not determine how many people have been offered buyouts or how many have accepted. A separate email reviewed by Reuters showed Japan's third-biggest automaker has also suspended merit-based pay increases globally for the current business year. The automaker said in a statement that Nissan North America is offering a voluntary separation program to a limited group of U.S. salaried employees. It declined to give more details as the process is ongoing. Cutting U.S. workforce runs counter to President Donald Trump's aim of creating jobs and boosting domestic manufacturing through initiatives including a 25% tariff on imported vehicles. But Nissan's operating profit margin in North America including the U.S., its biggest market, worsened in the business year ended March, even as it sold more cars than a year earlier. It offered buyouts to Canton workers after launching a job-cut plan in November and has now followed that up with another round. Analysts attributed Nissan's troubles to factors including an ageing line-up, a lack of hybrid models in the U.S. and excessive focus on increasing output under former top executive Carlos Ghosn whose near two-decade year tenure ended in 2018. Separately, Nissan on Tuesday said it had paid 646 million yen ($4.5 million) in compensation to former CEO Makoto Uchida and three other executive officers who left their positions at the end of March. Nissan has yet to disclose a full list of production sites it plans to close. At home in Japan, Oppama and one other plant are under consideration, sources told Reuters this month. Nissan has said it will consolidate Mexican and Argentinian pick-up truck production into a single Mexican site, and that Renault will buy its stake in their joint Indian business. It has also said it would close a Thai plant by June. On Wednesday, Bloomberg News reported that Nissan is considering raising more than 1 trillion yen from debt and asset sales which would include a syndicated loan guaranteed by the UK government. ($1 = 144.0500 yen)
Yahoo
27-05-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Exclusive-Toyota to move some GR Corolla production to Britain, sources say
By Maki Shiraki TOKYO (Reuters) -Toyota plans to move some production of its GR Corolla sports car to Britain and will spend around $56 million on a dedicated line there to build exports for North America, according to two people familiar with the matter. By shifting some production from Japan, Toyota aims to use excess capacity in Britain to help it cut delivery wait times for the car, said the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The move was not in reaction to President Donald Trump's tariffs on automobile imports, they said. The Trump administration agreed this month to cut tariffs on auto imports from Britain to 10% for up to 100,000 vehicles a year. Japan, which has been hit with 25% auto tariffs, is seeking to have them repealed. Toyota produces the GR Corolla in Japan for the Japanese market and for export to North America and other markets. But it hasn't been able to keep up with North American demand, given keen interest in the gasoline-powered car from engine enthusiasts, the people said. It will set up a production line at the Burnaston plant in Derbyshire and invest around 8 billion yen ($56 million) to produce 10,000 cars annually for export to North America from the middle of 2026, according to the people. Burnaston began operations in 1992 and possesses advanced production technology. It has suffered a decline in production since Brexit, said the people. The plant already produces the Corolla GR's base model, the Corolla hatchback, making it a natural choice, one of the people said. Engineers will be temporarily dispatched from Japan to share production technology and other expertise, the people said. In response to Reuters questions, Toyota said it was always looking for ways to optimise production. The report was not something the company had publicly announced, it said. ($1 = 142.6100 yen) Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
17-05-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Nissan considering plant closures in Japan, overseas, sources say
By Maki Shiraki and Daniel Leussink TOKYO (Reuters) -Nissan is considering plans to shut two car assembly plants in Japan and overseas factories, including in Mexico, sources said on Saturday, as part of a cost-cutting plan the company flagged earlier this week. The automaker is mulling closing Japan's Oppama plant, where Nissan started production in 1961, and the Shonan plant operated by Nissan Shatai, in which Nissan is a 50% stakeholder, the sources said, which would leave it with just three vehicle assembly plants in Japan. Overseas, Nissan is considering ending production at plants in South Africa, India and Argentina, and cutting the number of factories in Mexico, one of the sources said. Japan's third-biggest automaker unveiled sweeping new cost cuts on Tuesday, saying it would reduce its workforce by around 15% and cut production plants to 10 from 17 globally as it seeks to push through a turnaround. The Yomiuri newspaper, which first reported the automakers' possible closing of plants in Japan and overseas, said two factories in Mexico are under consideration. Nissan said in a statement on its website that reports on the potential closure of certain plants were speculative and not based on any official information of the company. "At this time, we will not be providing further comments on this matter," Nissan said in the statement. "We are committed to maintaining transparency with our stakeholders and will communicate any relevant updates as necessary." The more aggressive turnaround steps unveiled by new CEO Ivan Espinosa mark a sharp break with Nissan's strategy under his predecessor Makoto Uchida, who had high hopes of expanding global production and had refused to close domestic plants. The automaker's fiscal 2024 sales stood at 3.3 million vehicles, down 42% since the 2017 business year. In its statement on Saturday, Nissan said it had previously announced it would consolidate production of Nissan Frontier and Navara pickups from Mexico and Argentina into a single production hub centralised around the Civac plant in Mexico. It also said that it had announced in March that French alliance partner Renault would buy out its stake in their joint Indian business, Renault Nissan Automotive India Private Ltd (RNAIPL). The domestic plant closures would mark Nissan's first since closing its Murayama factory in 2001. Keeping just three home plants open - its Tochigi factory and the Nissan Motor Kyushu and Nissan Shatai Kyushu plants in southern Fukuoka prefecture - would be more than enough to service the domestic market and maintain exports from Japan, one source said. The Oppama plant has annual capacity of around 240,000 cars and employed about 3,900 workers as of end-October. In 2010, it became Nissan's first plant to start producing the Leaf, widely considered the world's first mass-market electric vehicle. The Shonan plant, which produces commercial vans, has an annual capacity of around 150,000 units and employs about 1,200 people. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
18-04-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Exclusive-Toyota weighs adding US production of new RAV4 in response to tariffs, sources say
By Maki Shiraki TOKYO (Reuters) - Toyota is considering producing the next version of its top-selling RAV4 SUV in the United States, three people familiar with the matter said, becoming the latest automaker to rethink supply chains to lessen the hit from U.S. tariffs on imported vehicles. Toyota makes the current version of the popular SUV in Kentucky, Canada and Japan. It originally planned to export the new RAV4 to the United States from Canada and Japan but it is now considering producing it in Kentucky as well, according to the people, all of whom declined to be identified because the information is not public. Adding supply from the United States would lessen the impact for the Japanese automaker from President Donald Trump's 25% tariffs on imported cars and avoid potentially higher costs in cases of fluctuations in the volatile yen currency, two of the people said. Toyota is set to unveil an overhauled 2026 RAV4 - its first redesign since the fifth-generation 2019 model - later this year and will then gradually introduce it in different markets around the world, one of the people said. It has yet to announce the exact timing of the U.S. roll-out. Toyota has yet to finalise its production plans, the people said. Any production changes cannot be implemented quickly and require long-term planning, one of them said, due to the time-consuming and capital-intensive work involved in retooling manufacturing facilities and adjusting supply chains. If the automaker goes ahead with the Kentucky plan, it would likely start production there in 2027, one of the people said. Regardless of the outcome with Kentucky, Toyota's overall vehicle output in Canada is likely to be maintained, the people said. Toyota said in a statement to Reuters that it continually studied ways to improve its manufacturing to best serve customers and provide stable employment for employees. "We have nothing to announce at this time and will not comment on speculation," it said when asked about plans to produce the new version of the RAV4 in Kentucky. The RAV4 was the best-selling vehicle in the U.S. last year, knocking Ford's F-150 pickup truck off the top spot it held for years, according to market research firm JATO Dynamics. The Japanese automaker sold more than 475,000 RAV4s in the U.S. last year, accounting for a fifth of its total vehicle sales there. It was not immediately clear how many of the new RAV4 Toyota would produce in the United States. It has 11 plants in the U.S., including auto-parts plants, and produced almost 1.3 million vehicles there in 2024, equivalent to more than half of its 2.3 million U.S. car sales. Toyota said this month it will continue to run its operations as normal and focus on bringing down fixed costs, stopping short of taking more drastic steps such as raising vehicle prices in response to the tariffs. Global automakers, including U.S.-based ones that produce cars in other countries, face the spectre of potentially higher costs from the 25% levy on imported cars introduced this month. Nissan plans to reduce Japanese production of its top-selling U.S. model by 13,000 vehicles over the three months to July, Reuters reported on Tuesday. Honda plans to make its next-generation Civic hybrid in the U.S. state of Indiana rather than in Mexico to avoid potential tariffs, Reuters has reported. Trump said on Monday he was considering modifying the auto levy because automakers "need a little bit of time". Japanese automakers have been building up U.S. production for decades. Toyota says its total investment in the U.S. over the years has reached almost $50 billion. Tokyo's top trade negotiator, Ryosei Akazawa, met with Trump and U.S. officials in Washington to discuss tariffs on Wednesday. Trump said there was "big progress" in the talks, after he made the surprise move to negotiate directly with the Japanese trade delegation. Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
15-04-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Exclusive-Nissan to cut Japanese production of top-selling US model due to tariffs, source says
By Maki Shiraki TOKYO (Reuters) - Nissan will cut Japanese production of its top-selling U.S. model, the Rogue SUV, over May-July, said a person familiar with the matter, becoming the latest global automaker to alter manufacturing plans in response to new U.S. import tariffs. U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to slap a 25% levy on cars built overseas has upended the global automotive supply chain. Nissan, Japan's third-largest carmaker, is more exposed than some rivals. The United States is its top market, accounting for more than a quarter of the vehicles it sold last year, with many of those made in Japan or Mexico. Nissan plans to reduce output of the Rogue by 13,000 vehicles at its plant in Kyushu, southwest Japan, during the three-month period, said the person, declining to be identified because the information is not public. The planned cut is equal to more than a fifth of the 62,000 Rogues sold in the United States in the first three months of this year. Workers at the Kyushu plant, Nissan's largest, will work fewer hours from May through July, with production halted on some days, the person said. The plant will continue to operate on two shifts a day, the person added. The automaker will reassess the production situation at a later date depending on the outlook for tariffs, the person said. On Monday, Trump said he was considering modifying the auto levy because automakers "need a little bit of time". Nissan said in a statement it was reviewing its production and supply chain operations to identify optimal solutions for efficiency and sustainability. It said it was committed to adapting to market changes while prioritising workforce and production capabilities. "Our approach will be thoughtful and deliberate as we navigate both immediate and long-term effects," it said. BACKTRACK The Rogue was Nissan's best-selling model in the U.S. last year, at almost 246,000 vehicles, accounting for more than a quarter of the carmaker's total U.S. vehicle sales. Nissan also makes Rogue models in Smyrna, Tennessee. The latest move comes after Nissan this month backtracked on a separate plan to cut output at Smyrna, saying it would maintain two shifts for the Rogue, rather than cutting to one as had been scheduled for April. Other automakers are also scrambling to navigate the tariffs, which Trump has said will boost U.S. manufacturing and jobs. Chrysler parent Stellantis has said it was pausing production at one plant in Mexico and one in Canada, impacting five connected U.S. facilities and temporarily laying off 900 U.S. workers. Honda plans to make its next-generation Civic hybrid in the U.S. state of Indiana, instead of Mexico, to avoid potential tariffs, Reuters has reported. Even before the tariffs, Nissan had been looking to slash global capacity by 20% as part of a turnaround plan. New CEO Ivan Espinosa is under pressure to put the automaker on track for recovery, especially in the U.S. where performance has been hit by an ageing line-up and a lack of hybrids. In the financial year that just ended, Nissan cut its profit outlook three times. Sign in to access your portfolio
