Nissan doesn't expect to resume operations in Russia in 2022

MOSCOW. May 16 (Interfax) - Nissan might not restart the business operations it has suspended in Russia in the 2022 financial year, the Japanese automaker's CEO, Makoto Uchida said.

The company suspended operations due to logistics and supply chain problems, and it is continuing to monitor the situation, Uchida said at a press conference on the results for the 2021 financial year that ended on March 31. Nissan believes operations will be shut down for the year, he said.

The company's priority is the safety of employees and their families in Russia and Ukraine, Uchida said.

Nissan Manufacturing Rus LLC, the company's plant in St. Petersburg, stopped its assembly line in mid-March due to logistics disruptions. The company earlier also suspended shipments of automobiles to Russia.

A source close to the company told Interfax earlier that production in St. Petersburg could resume on May 11, but this did not happen. The company is still having problems with components, the source said.

Nissan opened the plant in St. Petersburg in June 2009. It invested $200 million in the first phase and 167 million euros in an expansion. The plant, which produced the X-Trail, Murano, Qashqai and Terrano models, has capacity to assemble 100,000 vehicles per year and employed about 2,000 people.

Nissan's sales in Russia fell 32.5% to 11,750 vehicles in the first four months of 2022, but the company's market share grew by 0.6 percentage points to 4%, the Association of European Businesses reported. In 2021, Nissan's sales in Russia totalled 51,338 and its market share shrank by 0.4 percentage points to 3.1%.

Nissan Manufacturing Rus posted a net profit of 2.9 billion rubles to Russian Accounting Standards in 2021, compared to a loss of 2.2 billion rubles in the previous year, while revenue grew by 1.6% to 100.2 billion rubles.