Nissan will cut its global car production plans for October and November by 30% due to a continuing shortage of chips, according to foreign media reports. It is understood that Nissan recently informed suppliers that its updated production plan was to produce 263000 cars in October and 320000 in November, both of which were 30 per cent lower than previous production plans.
Nissan suspended production at a factory in the United States for two weeks in August because of a moratorium on semiconductor production in Malaysia. Nissan's production speed and output exceeded expectations in the first nine months of this year because its production plans were more conservative than those of other automakers. Nissan has controlled the adverse effects of chip shortages to some extent.
In October, Nissan's original production plan required an increase compared with the same period last year, but the tight supply of semiconductors forced the company to cut car production on the basis of the plan.
In addition to Nissan, Honda is also expected to cut car production in November. On Oct. 21, Honda revealed that it expects to cut production at its three Japanese plants by 10% each in early November.
In October, Honda expects its car production in japan to fall by an average of 30%. Among them, production at the Suzuka factory in Sanchong prefecture fell by 40 per cent, and that at the Sayama plant in Saitama prefecture fell by 20 per cent. The Yorii plant in Saitama prefecture had no plans to cut production in October, but it eventually cut production by 10 per cent because of a shortage of semiconductors.
Overall, Japanese carmakers are reducing production cuts.
Toyota decided in November to cut global production by 15 per cent from its original plan, after announcing a 40 per cent cut in October. Toyota's November production is expected to be the same as the 820000 vehicles produced in the same period last year, and last year's production hit a record for the same period.
Nissan expects its October production to fall 32 per cent from a year earlier, but November production is expected to fall 21 per cent from a year earlier.
Japanese carmakers believe the parts supply crisis will ease. Toyota and other carmakers are preparing to increase production from December. So far, Nissan has not changed its expected production cuts for the current fiscal year, meaning that the chip crisis will reduce its car production in the current fiscal year by 500000 vehicles.
Makoto Uchida, president and chief executive of Nissan, said: "We expect that we will be able to make up for half of the cut in production in the second half of the year."
