TOKYO, JAPAN (AFP) - Japan's fourth-biggest automaker Mitsubishi Motors Corp. announced Thursday an interim loss of 400 million dollars, warning that the global car industry remains in a severe situation.

The company posted a net loss of 36.40 billion yen (S$55.7 million) for the April-September period, swinging into the red after a year-earlier profit of 12.77 billion yen.

Revenue more than halved to 573.03 billion yen from 1.21 trillion yen, leaving the group with an operating loss of 32.50 billion yen, compared with a profit of 25.36 billion yen in the same period of 2008.

"The situation facing the automobile industry continues to be severe," the automaker said in a statement.

Mitsubishi Motors' global sales tumbled 26 percent to about 445,000 vehicles in April-September due to weaker demand in key markets such as North America, Europe and Japan, which offset improvements in China and the Philippines.

But it said government incentives to buy fuel-efficient cars had provided some support to sales.

As well as a worldwide plunge in car sales, the strength of the yen is another major headache for Japanese manufacturers, which are increasingly relying on overseas buyers to compensate for a weak domestic market.

The company is seeking to capture a slice of the fast-growing market for environmentally friendly cars and earlier this year rolled out the electric "i-MiEV" minicar.

The maker of the Pajero and Outlander sport-utility vehicles kept its annual forecast unchanged, predicting a net profit of five billion yen and operating profit of 30 billion yen.