Japan's Mazda Motor Corporation said today that it expects to post a net loss for the current financial year as sales slide in the US.
Mazda, whose biggest shareholder is ailing US giant Ford, said it now forecast a net loss of 13 billion yen ($145m) in the year ending on March 31. The car maker had previously expected a net profit of 50 billion yen.
It marks a dramatic turnaround for Japan's fifth largest car maker, which last year posted a record net profit of 91.84 billion yen as its cars sold briskly in North America and Europe.
Car makers around the world have been hit hard by the global economic crisis as customers either can not afford or fail to secure loans to buy new cars.
Mazda said it still enjoyed sales growth of 38% in China in the first nine months of the year due to the popularity of its Mazda-6 car. Its Mazda 2 also continued to fare well in Europe.
But sales dropped both in Japan and the US in the nine-month period, it said.
'In North America, retail volume was down 10% to 271,000 units amid the overall declining market,' a Mazda statement said.
In the nine months to December, Mazda said its net profit fell 35.9% from a year earlier to 28.9 billion yen. Operating profit plummeted by two-thirds to 36.5 billion yen and sales slipped 16.7% to 2.088 trillion yen.
For the full year, Mazda expects an operating loss of 25 billion yen on sales of 2.550 trillion yen, a drop of 26.6% from the previous year.
