Nissan says China sales fell nine percent in October, trims forecast

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Nissan Motor Co Ltd <7201.T> and its Chinese joint venture partner sold about 104,400 automobiles in China in October, down 9 percent from a year earlier, the Japanese carmaker said on Tuesday. That follows a 20 percent year-on-year decrease in September and a 0.7 percent dip in August. Nissan earlier on Tuesday said weakness in China, the world's largest auto market, dragged on second-quarter earnings. The company's China sales in the first 10 months of the year came to about 983,500 vehicles, up 3.5 percent from the same period a year earlier. Nissan, which operates a car venture in China with Dongfeng Motor Group Co Ltd <0489.HK>, also revised its China sales forecast for the year down to 1.27 million vehicles versus a previous forecast of 1.4 million. Nissan's Senior Vice President Jun Seki said in May that the company aims to achieve annual China sales of 2 million cars by 2017-2018. (Reporting by Samuel Shen and Adam Jourdan)