Nissan may boost net income to 150 billion yen ($1.62 billion) for the year ending March 31, from 42.4 billion yen a year earlier, the Yokohama, Japan-based company said in a statement today. Sales may rise to 8.2 trillion yen from 7.5 trillion yen.

CEO Carlos Ghosn expects Nissan's sales in China to rise 14 percent this fiscal year, while deliveries in North America may increase 12 percent this fiscal year to 1.2 million as the world's second-largest auto market recovers from a recession. The maker of Altima sedans follows Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co. in forecasting full-year profit growth.

"Like Toyota and Honda, Nissan's profit growth will be driven by the U.S. and China," said Koji Endo, managing director at Advanced Research Japan in Tokyo. "The question is whether Nissan can gain market share in the U.S. with its new models."

Nissan increased U.S. deliveries 35 percent in April to 63,769 vehicles as the nation's industrywide auto demand rose for a sixth month to 982,131, according to Autodata Corp.

Chinese sales

The Japanese carmaker boosted sales in China, the world's largest automobile market, 68 percent to 243,000 in the three months ended March and plans to start selling its March compact car in the country in the second half of this year. Nissan aims to raise production capacity in China by almost 70 percent to 900,000 units a year by 2012, as the nation's growing economy fuels rising demand.

Nissan posted a net loss of 11.6 billion yen for the fiscal fourth quarter ended March 31, compared with a loss of 277 billion yen a year earlier, the company said. That compares with a net profit of 6.3 billion yen, according to the average estimate of three analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

Nissan rose 1.1 percent to close at 745 yen in Tokyo today before the earnings announcement. The stock has dropped 8 percent this year.