Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. (PNK:NSANY) Q2 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

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I cannot give you the number right now, we will show in the Q3, but it’s very challenging. And, right now, as all of the international brands are doing in China, we are trying to shift and transform, and find a new way to compete in China in thrive. So this is why we accelerated the new energy vehicle, as which has shown, four new Nissan brand and six German [ph] brand. So total 10 new energy vehicle will come to China within the next – starting next year and within the next 2 years, basically. That will come very rapid fashion. So we are quickly reorganizing ourselves to make sure that we are able to compete in the China market. So yes, you’re right. I mean, I don’t think we can expect much proper contribution from China in the short-term.

That’s reality. I think many of the OEM has the same reality now. For your other question about restructuring H2. Yes, if you do look at the H2 profit that we have, and then especially below operating profit and net income, yes, we did put some contingency just in case we need to do some cleanup and some costs related to cleanup. We did put something in there and we do not yet know if we need to use all of it, but we did to consider some of that in second half. Okay, Takahashi-san.

Kohei Takahashi – UBS Securities: Yes, understood. In the third quarter, I will look into your numbers. Thank you.

Stephen Ma: Thank you very much.

Operator: It’s about time to close. So the next question will be the final question. Daiwa Securities, Hakomori-san. Please go ahead.

Eiji Hakomori – Daiwa Securities Group: Hakomori of Daiwa Securities. Thank you for talking with us once again. Two simple questions. First of all, Nissan NEXT global production capacity 5.4 million, it’s been reduced. China’s utility ratio is low. I understand that, but depending on production site like Mexico, there are areas where utility ratio is high. There’s a great variance. So, 5.4 million, how will you be planning for the future and 100,000 units to be exported from China? Where are the candidate destinations? That’s my first question. Secondly, S&P credit rating downgraded. And you said that one of your priorities is to upgrade once again, but Renault has Nissan shares and Ampere. There’s capital requirements as well. So, it’s been 6 months since the downgrade. Have you changed your capital policy? Those are my two questions.

Makoto Uchida: [Interpreted] The second question will be responded to by Stephen. But how do we optimize production capacity? Currently, we’re at 3.7 million under Nissan NEXT, we had a higher goal. So we’re far away, and we are seeking efficiency like assembly line layout. There are such plans. But the biggest factor would be China, and 1.7 million is the capacity in China. But how many units we’re producing at the moment. So, partly, that will be solved through export, but is that going to be impacting other production sites? These are four models developed in China, so we consider this as new opportunity, and in other production sites, there are areas where there hasn’t been any choking points in Nissan’s supply.

So, we are currently studying the possibility of exporting from China to respond. Optimization of capacity and fixed costs in China, those are under discussion with our partners, and I think we have to come up with concrete plan. That’s where we are at the moment. And regarding other regions than China, depending on the situation differs, but utility ratio should be at around 85%. So, I think it’s possible to optimize, and that will be written down in the midterm plan. That’s where we are.

Stephen Ma: Just to complement on Uchida’s point. This is the beauty of Uchida’s saying about exporting from China. As you noted, in some plants globally, Mexico and in Japan Kyushu, we are max production. And they are producing some of the vehicles are in high demand. And some of those cars can also be produced in other areas of globally. So if we can supplement some of it by China production and export, it actually helps us globally to actually achieve the higher volume. So that’s the nice part about that. And to your second question about S&P downgrade that we did before, as we mentioned before, we keep repeating or emphasizing we have strong performance, we have strong balance sheet. And as you can see now, very high Q2 profitability and very high net cash.

So you can imagine, I will be having very, very good conversation with S&P tomorrow to try to convince them to reverse their opinion. But, I think, we are doing as much as we can to demonstrate to them that we are very, very strong, and we are getting better every quarter-on-quarter. In terms of policy, I think what we’re doing right now is pretty good. Rakesh, I don’t know if you want to add anything to it, but there’s not much we can do. It’s okay. So I think right now, we are on the right track with all the right principle and the strategy. So as we mentioned many, many times, we just need the volume and the good performance of our management and the vehicle products will shine through all of it. Okay? Hakomori-san, is that okay?

Eiji Hakomori – Daiwa Securities Group: [Interpreted] Yeah, thank you so much.

Julian Krell: Thank you very much. We will now close the session. Thank you very much for your participation today. The Nissan Investor Relations team remains at your disposal for any follow-up questions. Bye-bye.

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