Japan's Nissan said today its net profits slumped for a third quarter in a row as a result of higher costs, weaker demand and the popularity of less profitable smaller cars, combined with the effects of a weaker yen.
Japan's third-largest car maker, which was overtaken by Honda in 2006, continues to struggle after suffering its first drop in annual profits last year.
But the carmaker maintained its forecasts for a recovery in profits for the full year, helped by new model launches.
Nissan, 44% owned by France's Renault, said net profit for the first quarter fell 16.2% in the three months to June from a year earlier to 92.31 billion yen ($765m).
Operating profit dipped 3.2% to 148.44 billion yen while revenue gained 10.7 percent to 2.45 trillion yen.
'Our results for the first quarter were in line with our expectations, considering factors such as weaker product mix, higher raw material prices and the change in effective tax rate,' chief executive Carlos Ghosn said in a statement.
'We are encouraged by the momentum building globally for our new products such as the Qashqai, Altima, Livina and Infiniti G35 (models) and we maintain our forecast for the full fiscal year,' he added.
