Nissan holds fast to GCC market

Abu Dhabi: Japan's Nissan Motor Company car maker is planning to sell 130,000 units in Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) countries this Japanese financial year, a top-ranking company executive said in Abu Dhabi on Monday.

Gilles Normand, corporate vice-president for Africa, Middle East and India told reporters the plan was to sell more than 200,000 units in the Middle East North Africa (Mena) region in the Japanese financial year to March, 2011. The projected sales figures included Nissan's Infiniti model.

"We expect our full year sales [in the Mena region] to slightly increase over 2009. However, we are not yet near pre-crisis level sales," said Normand. He added that 2008 had been a record year for sales for Nissan in the region.

He said nearly 50 per cent of the cars Nissan exported to the region were made in Japan, while the rest came from its manufacturing bases in Thailand, Mexico, the US, South Korea, South Africa and Europe.

Normand said the company is also looking to export cars to the region from Nissan's manufacturing plant in India soon.

New export hubs

Separately, he said Nissan's operations in Iran were "very limited". "We have no investments in Iran. We are respecting all sanctions — the US and the European," he said.

Carlos Ghosn, president and chief executive officer of Nissan Motor Company, said although the Middle East was extremely welcoming towards Japanese brands, an unreasonable exchange rate for the Japanese yen was causing exporters to lose their competitive edge.

"The best we are doing is holding onto our market share," Ghosn said. "Currency is an important element. All competitors are facing the situation [of strengthening of the yen against major global currencies]," he added.

Asked if Nissan was hoping to increase its manufacturing bases in the Mena region to overcome challenges posed by currency fluctuations, Ghosn said Nissan at present had no plans to invest in new plants in the region.

"We need a free trade agreement with Arab countries before going any further," he said.

Nissan currently has a manufacturing plant in Egypt while Renault has a factory on its way in Morocco. Ghosn said Nissan had decided to first introduce electric cars in the US, Japanese and European markets.

He said the company remained in talks with countries in the Gulf region, regarding the introduction of electric cars.

"For electric cars, we need the scale to make the technology competitive and cut down the costs. When you have the scale, you get the cost," he said.

He said the global car market in general was poised for a moderate three to four per cent growth in the immediate future.

"Some markets will stagnate, some are going to decline, while some will boom," he said, adding that electric cars were going to stimulate growth in the car market.