TOKYO: Nissan Motor Co. plans to cut vehicle production in China by 30,000 units in the coming months, a person briefed on the matter told Reuters, as global automakers grapple with falling demand in the world’s biggest car market.
After Ford Motor Co. and Hyundai Motor Co, Nissan becomes the latest automaker to cut production in the country, where slowing economic growth and a crippling trade war with the United States have pummelled vehicle sales in the past few months.
Nissan plans to cut production in China by a total of 30,000 units during the December-February period from its initial output plans, said the person who declined to be identified as the plans are not public.
Automakers set initial plans on how many vehicles to produce at each of their plants. These plans can be modified due to demand, supply chain issues and other factors. It was not known how much Nissan had planned to produce in the three months.
The automaker produced nearly 400,000 units in the country during the three-month period ended February this year. The period covers the first two months of the year, when sales usually slow in the run-up to the Lunar New Year holidays.
Japan’s Nikkei business daily reported late on Thursday that Nissan plans to cut production at three plants in China, including one in Dalian, where it produces the popular Qashqai and Infiniti QX50 SUV crossover models, and in Zhengzhou, where it makes the X-Trail SUV crossover, one of its top-selling models, and Venucia brand models.
A Nissan spokeswoman in Beijing declined on Friday to comment on future production plans.
China is Nissan’s second-largest market, accounting for roughly one-quarter of its annual global vehicle sales. It sold 1.5 million vehicles in China last year, and earlier this year said it planned to boost sales to 2.6 million units by 2022, making China its biggest market in terms of vehicle sales.
But a stretch of booming demand for cars in China seems to have come to an end, with the market on track to post a fall in annual sales for the first time since at least 1990. Nissan’s group sales in China rose 3.9 percent in the January-November period, slowing from a 12 percent jump a year ago.
A slowdown in the major market comes at a time when the Japanese automaker is grappling with a scandal involving alleged financial misconduct of Carlos Ghosn, leading to his arrest and subsequent ouster as chairman, and straining ties with French automaking partner Renault SA.
Nissan to cut China auto output over 3 months as demand slows
Nissan to cut China auto output over 3 months as demand slows
- Nissan plans to cut production in China by a total of 30,000 units during the December-February period from its initial output plans
- China is Nissan’s second-largest market, accounting for roughly one-quarter of its annual global vehicle sales
AI will never replace human creativity, says SRMG CEO
- Speaking to Maya Hojeij, senior business anchor at Asharq with Bloomberg, Jomana R. Alrashid expressed pride in SRMG platforms that had absorbed and adopted AI
RIYADH: Jomana R. Alrashid, CEO of Saudi Research and Media Group, highlighted how AI cannot replace human creativity during a session at The Family Office’s “Investing Is a Sea” summit at Shura Island on Friday.
“You can never replace human creativity. Journalism at the end of the day, and content creation, is all about storytelling, and that’s a creative role that AI does not have the power to do just yet,” Alrashid told the investment summit.
“We will never eliminate that human role which comes in to actually tell that story, do the actual investigative reporting around it, make sure to be able to also tell you what’s news or what’s factual from what’s wrong ... what’s a misinformation from bias, and that’s the bigger role that the editorial player does in the newsroom.”
Speaking on the topic of AI, moderated by Maya Hojeij, senior business anchor at Asharq with Bloomberg, the CEO expressed her pride in SRMG platforms that had absorbed and adopted AI in a way that was “transformative.”
“We are now translating all of our content leveraging AI. We are also now being able to create documentaries leveraging AI. We now have AI-facilitated fact-checking, AI facilities clipping, transcribing. This is what we believe is the future.”
Alrashid was asked what the journalist of the future would look like. “He’s a journalist and an engineer. He’s someone who needs to understand data. And I think this is another topic that is extremely important, understanding the data that you’re working with,” she said.
“This is something that AI has facilitated as well. I must say that over the past 20 years in the region, especially when it comes to media companies, we did not understand the importance of data.”
The CEO highlighted that previously, media would rely on polling, surveys or viewership numbers, but now more detailed information about what viewers wanted was available.
During the fireside session, Alrashid was asked how the international community viewed the Middle Eastern media. Alrashid said that over the past decades it had played a critical role in informing wider audiences about issues that were extremely complex — politically, culturally and economically — and continued to play that role.
“Right now it has a bigger role to play, given the role again of social media, citizen journalists, content creators. But I also do believe that it has been facilitated by the power that AI has. Now immediately, you can ensure that that kind of content that is being created by credible, tier-A journalists, world-class journalists, can travel beyond its borders, can travel instantly to target different geographies, different people, different countries, in different languages, in different formats.”
She said that there was a big opportunity for Arab media not to be limited to simply Arab consumption, but to finally transcend borders and be available in different languages and to cater to their audiences.
The CEO expressed optimism about the future, emphasizing the importance of having a clear vision, a strong strategy, and full team alignment.
Traditional advertising models, once centered on television and print, were rapidly changing, with social media platforms now dominating advertising revenue.
“It’s drastically changing. Ultimately in the past, we used to compete with one another over viewership. But now we’re also competing with the likes of social media platforms; 80 percent of the advertising revenue in the Middle East goes to the social media platforms, but that means that there’s 80 percent interest opportunities.”
She said that the challenge was to create the right content on these platforms that engaged the target audiences and enabled commercial partnerships. “I don’t think this is a secret, but brands do not like to advertise with news channels. Ultimately, it’s always related with either conflict or war, which is a deterrent to advertisers.
“And that’s why we’ve entered new verticals such as sports. And that’s why we also double down on our lifestyle vertical. Ultimately, we have the largest market share when it comes to lifestyle ... And we’ve launched new platforms such as Billboard Arabia that gives us an entry into music.”
Alrashid said this was why the group was in a strong position to counter the decline in advertising revenues across different platforms, and by introducing new products.
“Another very important IP that we’ve created is events attached to the brands that have been operating in the region for 30-plus years. Any IP or any title right now that doesn’t have an event attached to it is missing out on a very big commercial opportunity that allows us to sit in a room, exchange ideas, talk to one another, get to know one another behind the screen.”
The CEO said that disruption was now constant and often self-driving, adding that the future of the industry was often in storytelling and the ability to innovate by creating persuasive content that connected directly with the audience.
“But the next disruption is going to continue to come from AI. And how quickly this tool and this very powerful technology evolves. And whether we are in a position to cope with it, adapt to it, and absorb it fully or not.”
