Japanese automaker Nissan cuts 9,000 jobs as its vehicles fail to sell

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Nissan is reporting a loss for the latest fiscal quarter as its vehicle sales sank while costs and inventory ballooned

TOKYO — TOKYO (AP) — Nissan reported Thursday a loss for the latest fiscal quarter as its vehicle sales sank while costs and inventory ballooned, prompting the Japanese automaker to slash 9,000 jobs.

Chief Executive Makoto Uchida said he was taking a 50% pay cut to take responsibility for the dismal results, while promising that a turnaround was coming.

Nissan Motor Corp. announced a global workforce reduction of 9,000 people, or about 6% of its more than 133,000 employees, as well as a plan to slash global production capacity by 20%.

Uchida declined to say which regions will be affected by the cuts or give specifics.

For the latest quarter through September, Nissan racked up a 9.3 billion yen ($60 million) loss, a reversal from the 190.7 billion yen profit recorded the same quarter a year ago.

Quarterly sales fell to 2.9 trillion yen ($19 billion) from 3.1 trillion yen.

Uchida acknowledged Nissan didn’t respond quickly or flexibly enough to global changes, including market tastes and soaring raw material costs.

“I take this situation very seriously,” he told reporters. “Nissan will restructure its business to become leaner and more resilient.”

Nissan models did not sell well in the U.S., one of the most lucrative auto markets in the world that's recently been dominated by Ford, Toyota and Tesla.

All aspects of Nissan’s operations and plans will be under review, Uchida said.

Nissan, based in the port city of Yokohama, reported fiscal first half sales revenue of 5.98 trillion yen ($39 billion), edging down 1% from the more than 6 trillion yen the same period last year.

Its April to September profit