Nissan to supply cars to Honda in US

Nissan is in talks to supply cars to Honda in the United States, which would let the struggling Japanese automaker put to use an under-utilised American plant, the Nikkei newspaper said on Friday, without citing sources.

Nissan is considering making Honda pickup trucks at its Canton plant in Mississippi, which turns out models such as the Frontier, the paper said.

After Nissan's talks to merge with Honda to form the world's third-largest automaker fell apart this year, the two said they would keep up an agreement to work together in areas such as electric vehicles.

In a statement on Friday, Nissan said it had no additional updates, although it continued to work on projects with Honda. It said it would not comment on speculation.

Honda officials were not immediately available for comment.

Nissan reported a net loss of $4.5 billion in the financial year that ended in March, and has been badly hit by dwindling sales as it grapples with an ageing vehicle lineup.

It faces debt of about 700 billion yen ($4.8 billion) coming due this year and its debt ratings have been cut to junk by all three major credit ratings firms.

New CEO Ivan Espinosa has unveiled a sweeping cost-cutting plan that includes closing seven factories worldwide and a cut of 15% in the global workforce.

Like other legacy automakers, Nissan and Honda face rising competition from Chinese players and difficulties stemming from U.S.-Japan trade talks over auto tariffs.

(Reporting by Kantaro Komiya, Mariko Katsumura and Maki Shiraki; Editing by David Dolan and Clarence Fernandez)