The UK arm of car manufacturer Nissan has seen operating profits fall as a number of factors impacted the automotive sector.
Newly published accounts for the Sunderland-based plant, which employs more than 6,700, showed operating profit fell from £85.1m in 2021 to £56.7m in the year to the end of March as key components normally sold to Nissan's former Russian operation were suspended. Earlier this year, in the wake of the war in Ukraine, the global automotive giant sold its research and development facilities in St Petersburg and a sales and marketing centre in Moscow in a £626.7m loss-making deal which gave it the right to buy back the business within six years.
Meanwhile Covid challenges and the semiconductor shortages that have hampered the wider sector meant production volumes were significantly down on previous years as 181,000 cars rolled off the production line, compared with 246,000 in 2021. Turnover fell 8% to £3.6bn during the period.
