Ghosn swapping Nissan duties

[docdoowop]

CEO gives up Americas, adds treasury department

Automotive News / UPDATED: 3/16/2007 4:50 A.M.

Nissan Motor Co. CEO Carlos Ghosn is swapping some of his duties in a management change at the Japanese automaker.

Ghosn, who also is CEO of Renault SA, will no longer directly oversee Nissan's operations in North and South America.

On the other hand, he will take responsibility for the treasury department from COO Toshiyuki Shiga. Nissan does not have a chief financial officer.

Hiroto Saikawa will replace Ghosn as chairman of Nissan's management committee for the Americas. Saikawa currently is Nissan's executive vice president for purchasing.

The change is effective April 1. It is part of a broad annual shuffle of assignments at Nissan.

Saikawa also had been chairman of the management committee for Europe. Hidetoshi Imazu will take that post.

Imazu currently is a senior vice-president in charge of the vehicle production engineering division. He is being promoted to executive vice president for manufacturing and SCM. He also will be nominated to be a Nissan director at the company's shareholders' meeting in June.

In another change, Colin Dodge is shifted to senior vice president in charge of general overseas markets (GOL), China operations, and global information systems. He had been senior vice president in charge of manufacturing at Nissan Europe. He will move to Japan.

Shiga, who had been in charge of GOL, China and Japan, now will be in charge of Japan operations only. He remains Nissan's COO.

Mark McNabb will become a corporate vice president in charge of the global Infiniti business.

"The priority for our new management team is to act decisively on the multiple challenges facing Nissan and to boost our overall performance in 2007," Ghosn said in a statement.

Production cut in Japan

In response to a sharp slide in its domestic sales, Nissan said today it would cut back production at two domestic car plants for three months starting next month.

Japan's market for full-sized and compact cars has been on a steady decline as demand shifts to fuel-efficient 660cc minivehicles, but Nissan has suffered bigger drops than its rivals due to a slim line-up of new models.

For the first two months of this year, Nissan's sales of non-mini vehicles in Japan fell 16 percent to 100,623 units, while the overall market shrank by 9.4 percent.

Its minivehicle sales surged 24 percent in the same period, but those are supplied by Suzuki Motor Corp. and Mitsubishi Motors Corp.

To adjust inventory levels, Nissan said production would move to a single shift from two shifts between April and June at the Oppama and Tochigi plants, which assemble about a dozen models including the March subcompact.

Nissan, which is 44 percent owned by Renault, declined to say how many vehicles would be lost. The two plants have a combined annual output capacity of about 740,000 units.

But a spokeswoman said production in Japan for the export market as well as output overseas would rise in the new business year starting next month, resulting in a net increase in global production for 2007/08.

Nissan also closed down one of three lines at another factory in Kyushu, southern Japan, last September due to slow sales of the Teana high-end sedan.