text: With 70,000 employees and over fifty subsidiaries, 
  
  DFL is a strategic alliance for both companies. 
  
  In China, most joint ventures with foreign makers are 
  
  small and focus only on producing the foreign 
  
  partner’s products. In contrast, DFL integrates 
  
  Nissan’s technology, products and the Nissan 
  
  Management Way in the production of vehicles under 
  
  both the Nissan and Dongfeng brands. 
  
  Greater competition and a softer economy made 
  
  2004 a difficult year in the passenger vehicle market. 
  
  Yet we sold approximately 92,000 passenger vehicles 
  
  in China during the last calendar year. That number 
  
  included 61,000 DFL-produced Nissan-branded 
  
  vehicles, 21,000 Zhengzhou-produced Nissan pickups 
  
  and SUVs, and 10,000 imported vehicles. We also sold 
  
  nearly 88,000 light commercial vehicles under the 
  Industry and Commerce officially recognized the NISSAN 
  
  Dongfeng brand. 
  trademark as a “famous trademark.” Only trademarks with 
  
  superior reputations receive this distinction. Not only does 
  
  this represent an important milestone in Nissan’s efforts to  Increases in raw material costs and reductions in selling 
  
  build its brand in China, it also represents the first time a  price did affect the commercial vehicle business in fiscal 