August 2, 2000
Nissan Announces Sale of Plastic Fuel Tank Operations to Solvay
Tokyo, August 2 -- Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. announced today that it will sell its plastic fuel tank operations in Japan to Solvay Automotive Asia, K.K. Solvay, one of the world's leading providers of automotive fuel systems, will take over Nissan's in-house operations on November 1, 2000 (under the new corporate name of Inergy Automotive Systems*). Inergy will supply the company with fuel tanks in Japan from within Nissan manufacturing facilities in Oppama and Kyushu. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
"Working with Inergy Systems as a core partner, we will have access to their industry leading technology," said Hisayoshi Kojima, executive vice president for manufacturing and engineering for Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. "We will also benefit from their global scale as one of the largest makers of plastic fuel tanks worldwide."
Inergy Systems manufactures approximately 9 million tanks annually and currently supplies Nissan's Alliance partner, Renault, with more than 90% of their plastic fuel tanks annually. "We look forward to growing our business with Inergy Systems as we continue to integrate global purchasing and commonize platform development with Renault," said Kojima.
As part of the Nissan Revival Plan, Nissan has committed to focusing on core business and operations while outsourcing parts production in particular areas to leverage the capabilities and competitiveness of global suppliers.
Nissan has committed to returning to a net consolidated profit in fiscal year 2000, reducing net consolidated automotive debt to less than 700 billion yen by fiscal year 2002 and achieving an operating margin of 4.5 percent or greater by fiscal year 2002.
(* as of September 1, 2000, Solvay S.A. and Plastic Omnium will merge their fuel system activities and to create Inergy Automotive Systems. The company began using the new name as of August 1, 2000)
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