Japan: Japanese carmaker Nissan has announced it will cut an additional 11,000 jobs globally and close seven factories as part of a sweeping restructuring effort to offset plunging sales and mounting losses.
This move brings the total number of layoffs announced by the company in the past year to around 20,000, roughly 15 percent of its global workforce. Two-thirds of the latest cuts will come from manufacturing, while the rest will affect sales, administrative roles, research, and contract positions, according to Nissan’s new chief executive Ivan Espinosa.
The company, which employs about 133,500 people worldwide, including 6,000 at its Sunderland plant in the UK, did not specify where the job cuts would be made, leaving the future of some operations uncertain.
Nissan has struggled with falling sales in key markets, including China and the US, where it has been forced to offer heavy discounts to maintain competitiveness. Its efforts to form a strategic alliance to counter these pressures fell through earlier this year when merger talks with Honda and Mitsubishi collapsed. The deal would have created a $60 billion automotive powerhouse, potentially ranking as the fourth-largest in the world by vehicle sales.
In the aftermath of the failed merger, former chief executive Makoto Uchida was replaced by Espinosa, who previously served as Nissan’s chief planning officer and head of its motorsports division.
Adding to the firm’s woes, Nissan recently posted an annual net loss of $4.5 billion (£3.4 billion). Espinosa described the past financial year as challenging and pointed to an uncertain environment coupled with rising costs and external pressures, including tariffs imposed under former US President Donald Trump.
In November, Nissan had already announced 9,000 job cuts and a 20 percent reduction in global production as part of an earlier cost-saving drive. More recently, the company also scrapped plans to build a new electric vehicle and battery facility in Japan, citing the need to scale back investment amid the downturn.
Nissan declined to provide earnings forecasts for the coming year, citing continued uncertainty surrounding international trade policies, particularly US tariffs.
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