UK car workers under threat as Nissan slashes 9,000 jobs

Japanese car giant warns of ‘severe situation’ after dramatically cutting profit forecasts

Thousands of workers at Nissan’s plant in Sunderland are facing uncertainty after the Japanese car giant announced plans to scale back production and axe 9,000 jobs globally.
The company on Thursday warned it was facing “a severe situation” after reducing its annual forecast for operating profits from 500bn yen (£2.5bn) to just 150bn yen.
Nissan said it would not pay a dividend and was instead prioritising financial discipline to “create a leaner, more resilient business capable of swiftly adapting to changes in the market”.
This will involve reducing production by 20pc and removing 9,000 workers, equivalent to about 7pc of the company’s 133,000-strong operations, it said.
Makoto Uchida, Nissan’s chief executive, is also voluntarily giving up half of his monthly pay from this month onwards.
Nissan currently employs around 6,000 people in the UK, where it makes the Qashqai and Juke SUVs, as well as the electric Leaf.
It was not immediately clear what impact the cuts would have on the company’s British business.
On Thursday, Mr Uchida said: “These turnaround measures do not imply that the company is shrinking.
“Nissan will restructure its business to become leaner and more resilient, while also reorganising management to respond quickly and flexibly to changes in the business environment.
“We [have] an aim to enhance the competitiveness of our products, which are fundamental to our success, and set Nissan back on a path of growth.
“As a cohesive team, we are dedicated to working together to ensure the successful implementation of our plans.”
The stark moves come amid a challenging backdrop for Japanese car makers in China, previously a key market, where foreign brands are facing brutal competition from low-cost, high tech electric vehicles (EVs) made by domestic manufacturers such as BYD.
BYD is now the world’s largest manufacturer of EVs and plug-in hybrids, having overtaken Elon Musk’s Tesla last year.
Around the world, the company and its fellow Chinese competitors are now also seeking to capture new markets – posing a major challenge to the once-dominant Japanese brands.
In recent weeks, European car makers including Volkswagen, BMW and Mercedes have also sounded the alarm about their sales in China.