Japanese automotive giant Nissan announced it will shed 12,500 jobs worldwide.
The number of job cuts is more than double what it had previously announced.
Earlier this year, in May, Nissan announced it would cut 4,800 jobs – these losses are included in the new total.
The company didn’t say where the job cuts will be made, but said it plans on reducing its global production capacity by 10% and the size of its product lineup by 10% by the end of 2022.
The announcement was made along with the carmaker’s first-quarter results for fiscal year 2019.
Nissan generated an operating profit of 1.6 billion yen on net revenues of 2.37 trillion yen – an operating margin of 0.1%. First quarter net income dropped by 94.5% to 6.4 billion yen – one of the company’s worst quarterly performances in ten years.
Nissan said it is “moving quickly to optimize cost structures and manufacturing operations”.
The company said:
“To improve its overall utilization rate, Nissan will reduce its global production capacity by 10% by the end of fiscal year 2022. In line with production optimizations, the company will reduce headcount by roughly 12,500.
“Furthermore, the company will reduce the size of its product lineup by at least 10% by the end of fiscal year 2022 in order to improve product competitiveness by focusing investment on global core models and strategic regional models.”
According to the BBC, chief executive Hiroto Saikawa said in a news conference that the job cuts would account for a “big portion” of the savings the company wants to make.
Of the 12,500 job cuts, 6,400 have already been implemented at eight locations, Saikawa said. The other 6,100 jobs will be shed at six locations between 2020 and 2022 financial years.
