Japan's Nissan Motor Company on Tuesday announced a consolidated net income after taxes totalling $480-million for the third quarter of the fiscal year ending March 31, 2010.

The vehicle manufacturer said the “better-than-expected results” were owing mainly to additional sales volumes driven by scrapping incentives in major markets, sales volume growth in the ever-growing Chinese market, and what it called the “effective execution of countermeasures put in place following the global financial and economic crisis”.

Several countries had offered consumers cash incentives to scrap their older vehicles and buy new ones, in an effort to bail out their auto industries.

Nissan net revenue was $21,33-billion – an increase of 9,9% compared with a year ago.

Operating profit was $1,43-billion, and the operating profit margin came to 6,7%.

Ordinary profit was $1,2-billion.

“Our performance in the third quarter of fiscal 2009 is encouraging, demonstrating that our countermeasures are working,” said Nissan president and CEO Carlos Ghosn.

“Despite these positive quarterly results, we believe that conditions in the global economy are still volatile and uncertain, so our outlook will remain cautious until we see clear evidence that economic recovery can be sustained in world markets.”

Nissan sold 882 000 vehicles worldwide in the October to December 2009 period, a 20,6% increase over the same period in fiscal year 2008.

For the April to December 2009 period, net income after tax totalled $580-million, up 25% compared with the previous year.

Net revenue fell 19,5% to $57,47-billion.

Operating profit totalled $2,45-billion, an increase of 147,6%. Operating profit margin came to 4,3%.

Ordinary profit amounted to $1,56-billion, up 62%.

Globally, Nissan sold 2,5-million vehicles in the first nine months of the fiscal year, down 4,8% compared with the same period last year.

Positive Forecast
The company revised its full fiscal-year forecast for 2009 upwards.

Based on foreign-exchange rates of 92 yen to the dollar and 132 yen to the euro, Nissan said it anticipated net revenues of $80,43-billion, operating profit of $3,15-billion, research and development expenses of $4,29-billion; and capital expenditures of $3,26-billion.

In November last year, Nissan had said it expected net revenues of $77,78-billion, and operating profit of $1,33-billion for the 2009 fiscal year.