Japanese auto giant Nissan yesterday said it would return to full production globally by October, after the devastating March 11 earthquake and tsunami heavily disrupted output.
“We will be globally at full and unrestricted production by October,” Nissan president and CEO Carlos Ghosn told reporters.
Ghosn’s remark came after Nissan yesterday said annual net profit soared 653 percent to ¥319.2 billion (US$3.9 billion) but skipped a forecast for the current financial year because of the March earthquake.
Photo: AFP
Sales in China, Nissan’s largest single market worldwide, hit record levels, while sales also rose in the US and Europe. It posted a profit of ¥30.8 billion in January-March, returning to the black from a loss of ¥11.6 billion in the same period a year earlier.
Nissan’s operating profit surged 72.5 percent to ¥537.5 trillion in the year in which it saw record global sales of 4.18 million vehicles worldwide. It declined to give a forecast for the current financial year as it continues to assess the impact of the March 11 disaster.
“The March 11 earthquake in Japan significantly disrupted our operations, but Nissan is once again proving its resilience in the face of adversity,” Ghosn said.
Meanwhile, Toyota will be able to boost its US production sooner than expected, the automaker said on Wednesday.
Overall North American production will reach 70 percent of normal levels in June, up from approximately 30 percent in June.
Toyota had previously forecast that North American production would not start to ramp up again until August.
“Our team members and suppliers are working closely on countermeasure activities to improve the parts condition from Japan,” said Steve St. Angelo, vice president of Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America. “We continue to develop solutions in order to restore 100 percent production as soon as possible for all of our North American-made vehicles.”
Toyota said it hopes to fully normalize production by late this year.
BUSINESS UPDATE: The iPhone assembler said operations outlook is expected to show quarter-on-quarter and year-on-year growth for the second quarter Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday reported strong growth in sales last month, potentially raising expectations for iPhone sales while artificial intelligence (AI)-related business booms. The company, which assembles the majority of Apple Inc’s smartphones, reported a 19.03 percent rise in monthly sales to NT$510.9 billion (US$15.78 billion), from NT$429.22 billion in the same period last year. On a monthly basis, sales rose 14.16 percent, it said. The company in a statement said that last month’s revenue was a record-breaking April performance. Hon Hai, known also as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), assembles most iPhones, but the company is diversifying its business to
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: The chipmaker last month raised its capital spending by 28 percent for this year to NT$32 billion from a previous estimate of NT$25 billion Contract chipmaker Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電子) yesterday launched a new 12-inch fab, tapping into advanced chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) packaging technology to support rising demand for artificial intelligence (AI) devices. Powerchip is to offer interposers, one of three parts in CoWoS packaging technology, with shipments scheduled for the second half of this year, Powerchip chairman Frank Huang (黃崇仁) told reporters on the sidelines of a fab inauguration ceremony in the Tongluo Science Park (銅鑼科學園區) in Miaoli County yesterday. “We are working with customers to supply CoWoS-related business, utilizing part of this new fab’s capacity,” Huang said, adding that Powerchip intended to bridge
Microsoft Corp yesterday said that it would create Thailand’s first data center region to boost cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, promising AI training to more than 100,000 people to develop tech. Bangkok is a key economic player in Southeast Asia, but it has lagged behind Indonesia and Singapore when it comes to the tech industry. Thailand has an “incredible opportunity to build a digital-first, AI-powered future,” Microsoft chairman and chief executive officer Satya Nadella said at an event in Bangkok. Data center regions are physical locations that store computing infrastructure, allowing secure and reliable access to cloud platforms. The global embrace of AI
Qualcomm Inc, the world’s biggest seller of smartphone processors, gave an upbeat forecast for sales and profit in the current period, suggesting demand for handsets is increasing after a two-year slump. Revenue in the three months ended in June will be US$8.8 billion to US$9.6 billion, the company said in a statement Wednesday. Excluding certain items, earnings will be US$2.15 to US$2.35 a share. Analysts had projected sales of US$9.08 billion and earnings of US$2.16 a share. The outlook signals that the smartphone market has begun to bounce back, tracking with Qualcomm’s forecast that demand would gradually recover this year. The San