Nissan to shut its Barcelona plant, automaker logs $6.2 billion annual net loss

Japanese carmaker Nissan Motor Co. has decided to shut its plant in Barcelona putting 3,000 direct jobs under risk of being slashed. After the reports emerged, Spain's Industry Minister in a statement said that Nissan's decision to close its car manufacturing plant in Barcelona and two other factories in nearby towns have put more than 20,000 jobs at risk further adding that it will cost more to Nissan in closing down its operations than investing in it. 

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Nissan is undergoing a deep financial crisis as the company reported 40.5 billion yen in operating losses on May 28 while announcing financial results for the fiscal year 2019. However, no official confirmation on closing down its plant in northeastern Spain has come from Nissan yet but industry experts believe that the company is thinking of shutting down its operations in the European country. Nissan is currently undergoing a structural revamp after former CEO Carlos Ghosn was found guilty of mismanaging the earnings and misusing the company's assets. 

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Nissan Motor Co. on May 28 filed financial results for the fiscal year 2019, ending March 31, 2020, with the Tokyo Stock Exchange recording net revenues of 9,878.9 billion yen and net loss attributable to owners of the parent of 671.2 billion yen. This is the first time in 11 years that Nissan has recorded a yearly loss. Nissan also said that it sold a total of 4.930 million vehicles in this fiscal year compared to 5.516 million units in 2018.

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Job cuts across companies

Layoffs amid the pandemic have become a new reality with many multi-national companies announcing job cuts citing the coronavirus outbreak. In the past two months, companies such as Uber, Boeing, Ryanair, McLaren, Mitsubishi have announced thousands of job cuts as part of cost management. 

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