Nissan Motor said it plans to eliminate 700 contract worker jobs at its Canton assembly plant in the US state of Mississippi in response to slowing local demand and rising competition.
This follows an announcement in December of plans to cut around 1,000 jobs at its two Mexican facilities, which mainly supply the North American vehicle market.
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The Japanese automaker so far has spent US$3.4bn at its Mississippi facility which began operations in 2003 and currently employs 6,400 full time and contract workers.
It has capacity of 450,000 vehicles per year, split between the NV Cargo and Passenger vans, the Titan and Frontier trucks, the Murano SUV and the Altima passenger car.
The company said it would cut one of two shifts at its NV production line and reduce production at the Frontier and Titan truck line from three to two shifts.
Titan sales fell by 5% to around 50,000 units in 2018 and slowing economic growth is expected to put further pressure on demand this year.
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By GlobalDataSales of the Frontier pickup truck increased by 7% to 80,000 units last year, but new competing models from Ford and Fiat-Chrysler's Jeep division will also put pressure on Nissan's truck sales this year.
