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Strong global sales boosts Nissan's profit

Nissan Motor Co.'s profit for the July-September quarter climbed 8 percent as strong sales around the world offset rising raw material costs and discount incentives to sell cars in North America.
/ Source: The Associated Press

Nissan Motor Co.'s profit for the July-September quarter climbed 8 percent as strong sales around the world offset rising raw material costs and discount incentives to sell cars in North America.

Japan's second biggest car company on Friday reported group net profit of 125 billion yen ($1 billion) for the quarter, up from 115.6 billion yen the same period a year ago. Sales for the period jumped 11.5 percent to 2.3 trillion yen ($20 billion) from 2.1 trillion yen.

Nissan has been on a roll since embarking on a revival under the leadership of Chief Executive Carlos Ghosn, who was sent in by alliance partner Renault SA of France in 1999. Before his arrival, Nissan had lost money for years, but the company has returned to profitability in recent years.

"At the end of September, we declared the revival of Nissan complete," Ghosn told reporters at Tokyo headquarters. "Nissan continues to move at the right pace in the right direction."

Earlier this month, Nissan Motor Co. said it had reached a key target in its turnaround plan — called "Nissan 180" — by increased its annual global sales by 1 million vehicles compared to three years ago. Nissan's global sales in the 12 months through September totaled 3.67 million vehicles, more than 1 million from the 2.6 million vehicles sold in the fiscal year ended March 2002.

Like other Japanese automakers, Nissan's good fortunes come at a time when U.S. counterparts General Motors Corp. and Ford Motor Co. are losing money and struggling to maintain market share in the United States.

On Thursday, Japanese automaker Honda Motor Co. reported 244.3 billion yen ($2.1 billion) profit for the six months ended Sept. 30, up from 241.3 billion yen the same period a year ago. Honda's fiscal half-year sales jumped 10 percent to 4.6 trillion yen ($39.7 billion) from 4.17 trillion yen a year earlier on the back of healthy sales in North America.