Because the Nissan-Renault axis is still cracking
Nissan, which closed its fiscal year 2021 positively with a return to profit after 3 years, seems to want to disengage from the less profitable ventures, from Renault to Mercedes. Will the Japanese house dance alone?
It is certainly not new that the Franco-Japanese axis in the automotive sector has been creaking for some time, with the daring legal events of Carlos Ghosn , former president of Nissan-Renault-Mitsubishi Motors, to give him the coup de grace. The latest confirmation, however, did not come from Japan or France, but from Sunderland, in north-eastern England, within the metropolitan county of Tyne and Wear, where Nissan has a factory engaged in the production of cylinder heads. of the thermal engines that are then mounted in the cars of the Losanga company.
Well, once the existing contract has expired, it will no longer be renewed . It is a bolt from the blue, a decision that mortgages the future of hundreds of workers, although Nissan itself immediately reassured the blue suits and the city administration by declaring that there will be no cuts: "From the beginning of 2024, the Nissan's Sunderland plant will cease production of cylinder heads on site – a company spokesperson told Sky News UK – We do not expect this to result in job losses, and are working with staff to redeploy to others. company sectors ".
In the British plant, Nissan employs about 250 employees who are concentrated on the production of the cylinder heads for the internal combustion engines used by Renault. For its part, the French brand has reported that the Losanga group has already found a new supplier of these components, without specifying the name but merely stating that the collaboration with the company that will replace Nissan will begin in 2024. The reason for the non-renewal is not clear, it is certain that, even in terms of image, seeing the cooperation fade in this way certainly does not support the partnership between Renault and Nissan, which seems never to have been able to overcome the embarrassments due to the vicissitudes of former number 1 Carlos Ghosn.
But the Japanese are also making similar moves overseas, putting a strain on another joint venture, that between Mercedes and Infiniti, the luxury car brand of the Japanese car manufacturer, present on American soil since 1989. The agreement concerns joint production. in central Mexico of some models such as the Japanese brand's QX50 and QX55 crossover and has a time horizon of 2026. It will hardly go further given that Nissan will suspend the activities of the Decherd plant, in Tennessee, where it assembles four-cylinder two-liter turbos designed by Mercedes and used on German and Infiniti models.
Also in this case it has been known for a long time about the Japanese discontent about the operation of the plant, opened in 2014 following an investment of about 320 million dollars without ever having managed to push it beyond 35% of its maximum productivity. , remained on paper (the target was 250 thousand engines per year), but the Japanese were not expected to withdraw from the agreement signed at the time between Renault-Nissan and Daimler (both, in full pandemic, had then disengaged from holding in Daimler). Again, the House has assured that the 400 workers will be relocated. Given that both Nissan and Mercedes have firmly accepted the challenge of the ecological transition by announcing that they will soon discontinue endothermic engines, the reason for the non-renewal could be precisely the intention to forge new partnerships with other more active subjects in the field of electric powertrains and the plant. of Decherd could be reconverted.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia/perche-si-incrina-ancora-lasse-nissan-renault/ on Thu, 25 Aug 2022 10:59:18 +0000.