Nissan USA Denies Japanese Paper’s Report of Layoffs

Nissan is in trouble, though, and several analysts said they would not be surprised to see some payroll slashing in the U.S., where the company expects to lose about $42 million on its combined North American operations this year.

Nissan employs about 2,400 people in its U.S. headquarters and its import and distribution arm in Carson and 6,000 at its manufacturing facility in Tennessee.

The company’s U.S. sales have been plunging all year, and it said last month that it expects to lose the equivalent of $250 million worldwide for 1998.

Nissan has launched a major reorganization of its U.S. operations, including the impending Jan. 1 merger of Nissan Motor Corp. USA, its import and distribution arm, with Nissan North America Inc., the holding company for all of its North American operations.

A spokesman said Tuesday that the company expects to realize payroll savings from normal attrition during the coming year but is not planning layoffs.

Several other Asian car makers, including Japan’s Mazda and Mitsubishi and South Korea’s Hyundai, have laid off U.S. workers in the last 18 months in efforts to cut operating costs and improve their parent companies’ financial pictures during the Asian economic downturn.

The sagging Asian economy has hurt most Japanese and South Korean car makers, although in the U.S. companies like Toyota, Honda, Kia and Mazda have been reporting increasing sales.

Nissan has been hurt by stodgy styling and a dim advertising message, but analysts and company sources say a number of new products in the pipeline should help the auto maker bounce back.