Nissan To Shift Some North America Production to Japan

TOKYO, Oct 1, 2006; Reuters reported that Nissan Motor Co Ltd plans to move some of its manufacturing operations to Japan from North America as part of its efforts to improve profitability, the Nihon Keizai (Nikkei) business daily reported on Sunday.

Production of two Nissan models -- the Quest minivan and the Infiniti QX56 sport utility vehicle -- was expected to be relocated from a U.S. plant in Canton, Mississippi, to factories in Japan in 2008 and 2009, Nikkei said.

Nissan sold 40,000 Quests and 15,000 of the Infiniti QX56 in North America in 2005, Nikkei said.

Since both vehicles are mainly sold in North America, local production offers the company lower distribution costs, it said.

But given their small sales volumes, Nissan believes that it would be able to cut costs by producing them in Japan for export because domestic plants can switch between models and build them more quickly, the daily said.

Production volume at the Canton plant would remain unchanged as Nissan plans to increase the production of different pickup truck models there, it said.

Nissan officials were not immediately available for comment.