Nissan October production down globally except in Mexico, but Trump tariff threat looms

TOKYO (Reuters) – Nissan (OTC:) Motor said on Thursday its global production fell for a fifth straight month in October, led by downshifts at most of its manufacturing hubs except for Mexico.

While global sales also dropped for a seventh month, sales in Nissan’s core market, the United States, grew for the first time in three months.

Nissan earlier this month announced plans to axe 9,000 jobs and 20% of its manufacturing capacity globally to cut costs, after the third-biggest Japanese carmaker behind Toyota (NYSE:) and Honda (NYSE:) suffered sales slumps in China and the U.S.

The threat of U.S. tariffs is now clouding the struggling automaker’s restructuring efforts.

Nissan’s worldwide output for October decreased 6% from the same month a year earlier to 290,848 vehicles. Production both in the U.S. and China fell 15%, while output in Britain plunged 23% and production in Japan shrank 4%.

A bright spot was Mexico, where production rose 12% to 70,382 vehicles. That meant nearly one in four Nissan cars worldwide was made in Mexico last month.

However, that could come under pressure as U.S. President-elect Donald Trump this week said he would impose a 25% tariff on imports from Canada and Mexico upon taking office in January.

Nissan has exported some 300,000 vehicles from Mexico to the U.S. this year, and will closely monitor tariff plans, Chief Executive Makoto Uchida said shortly after Trump’s re-election.

In October, Nissan sold 13% more vehicles in the U.S., its first growth since July, led by compact sedan Sentra. Nissan’s sales also rose in Mexico and Canada but fell by double-digit rates in China and Europe to result in a 3% drop globally.

By contrast, Toyota’s global sales increased 1.4% to mark the first rise in five months in October, while its global production continued to decrease due in part to a production halt in the U.S.