TOKYO, April 19 Reuters Nissan Motor slashed its annual operating profit estimate by 14.5 on Friday, citing lowerthanexpected vehicle sales and other factors.

Japan39;s thirdlargest automaker by volume now estimates an operating profit of 530 billion yen 3.43 billion instead of 620 billion yen for the year that ended in March. Net profit is now estimated at 370 billion yen instead of 390 billion yen.

Nissan said its vehicle sales would total 3.44 million vehicles for the year, lowering its estimate just two months after a revision down to 3.55 million units partly due to a weak performance in China.

CEO Makoto Uchida told a press conference that the impact of intensifying competition in the U.S. market, the New Year39;s Day earthquake on Japan39;s Noto peninsula and disruptions to shipping in the Red Sea hurt its sales.

Nissan39;s quarterly sales performance was also hurt by strongerthanexpected U.S. demand for hybrids, Uchida said, a trend that has especially benefited rival Japanese automaker Toyota.

The profit forecast downgrade was partly due to Nissan giving support to suppliers after finding that it would be hard to hit its original sales targets for some models in the latest update to its midterm business plan, Uchida said.

He added that this support was not related to Japan39;s fair trade watchdog, which called out Nissan last month for a violation of the subcontractor act by underpaying 36 suppliers by about 3 billion yen over a roughly twoyear period from…