JAPANESE car company Nissan has seen global production of its vehicles fall for the sixth month in a row while sales also continue to suffer.

Global production of Nissan cars fell by 12.8 per cent in July, 2.8 per cent more than the ten per cent fall reported in June.

At the same time, UK production, at its Sunderland base, employing more than 5,000 staff, was down by 17.7 per cent to 24,177 vehicles.

Production in the year to July at the plant was down 3.6 per cent on the same period of 2000, to 189,057 vehicles.

Overall, overseas production, at Nissan's plants in the UK, US, Mexico and Spain, was down by 20.6 per cent on the same period of 2000.

At the same time, global sales of Nissan vehicles have continued to suffer.

Sales of Nissan cars and commercial vehicles in Europe, including the UK, were down by seven per cent, mainly affected by poor sales in the German market.

Sales in the US fell by 17.8 per cent, but sales in Canada were up 4.9 per cent, and rose 16.8 per cent in the Mexican market.

The poor Nissan sales, particularly in the UK market, come at a time when the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) reported new car sales in general were up by 4.3 per cent in the first six months of the year.

In June, they reached their highest-ever total of 215,325, 11.4 per cent up on the previous month.

In the year to June, the SMMT reported that 1,269,028 cars had been sold.

Nissan produced 198,542 vehicles in the year to June. Its production in Japan was 115,393, a fall of 6.9 per cent on the same period of last year.

Despite the apparent gloom in the global market, Nissan remains upbeat.

Andrew Horne, a spokesman for Nissan in the UK, said: "Despite the declines in both production and sales, we remain relatively optimistic about the rest of the year.

"We produced 330,000 vehicles last year and remain on target to produce around 300,000 in the current year.

"We are confident that the launch of the Primera in December will boost our sales in the early part of next year, as will the new-look Micra.

"Nissan UK remains confident of hitting its target of producing between 450,000 and 500,000 vehicles by 2004."