Panasonic Corp plans to close three plants in Asia and axe hundreds of jobs as it braces to slip into the red for the first time in six years, a report said yesterday.
The Nikkei Shimbun said Panasonic — bruised by falling electronics prices and the yen’s rise — is expected to report a net loss of around ¥100 billion (US$1.1 billion) in the business year to March.
Mounting restructuring costs will also push losses higher, the daily said, without citing its sources.
PHOTO: EPA
Japan’s electronics giants are facing tougher times after enjoying several years of strong profits, as consumers tighten their purse strings amid recessions in major economies from the US to Japan and Europe. The rising yen has also eroded their export earnings.
Electronics maker Canon Inc said yesterday net profit dropped 37 percent last year and it forecast a further plunge of 68 percent this year because of the global economic crisis.
Canon, which produces cameras and office equipment, logged an annual net profit of ¥309.15 billion, against a year-earlier profit of ¥488.33 billion. For this year it expects a much lower net profit of ¥98 billion.
“The rapid deterioration in the economic environment since the autumn has triggered a global slump in individual consumption. This has caused damage to the digital camera market beyond our expectation,” Canon managing director Masahiro Osawa told reporters.
The Nikkei said Panasonic, which has enjoyed brisk sales of plasma televisions, mobile telephones and digital cameras in recent years, will close two of its three electronics parts facilities in Malaysia.
The two are the Malacca factory, which churns out film capacitors used in mobile phones, and a factory in the state of Selangor, which makes switches for audiovisual equipment.
Panasonic will close the Malacca plant in March with the loss of 500 jobs, it said. The Selangor plant would shut in September, it added, without saying what would happen to the employees there.
A Philippine facility that produces batteries will also be shut in March, with its 60 employees losing their jobs, it said.
Panasonic did not confirm the Nikkei report.
The company said it would announce whether it was revising its full-year forecasts next Wednesday when it releases October-to-last-month results.
In November, the company slashed its net profit forecast for the current financial year by nearly 90 percent, to ¥30 billion.
Panasonic said earlier this month that it would slash investment in flat TVs and exit unprofitable businesses to streamline its operations.
MULTIFACETED: A task force has analyzed possible scenarios and created responses to assist domestic industries in dealing with US tariffs, the economics minister said The Executive Yuan is tomorrow to announce countermeasures to US President Donald Trump’s planned reciprocal tariffs, although the details of the plan would not be made public until Monday next week, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. The Cabinet established an economic and trade task force in November last year to deal with US trade and tariff related issues, Kuo told reporters outside the legislature in Taipei. The task force has been analyzing and evaluating all kinds of scenarios to identify suitable responses and determine how best to assist domestic industries in managing the effects of Trump’s tariffs, he
TIGHT-LIPPED: UMC said it had no merger plans at the moment, after Nikkei Asia reported that the firm and GlobalFoundries were considering restarting merger talks United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), the world’s No. 4 contract chipmaker, yesterday launched a new US$5 billion 12-inch chip factory in Singapore as part of its latest effort to diversify its manufacturing footprint amid growing geopolitical risks. The new factory, adjacent to UMC’s existing Singapore fab in the Pasir Res Wafer Fab Park, is scheduled to enter volume production next year, utilizing mature 22-nanometer and 28-nanometer process technologies, UMC said in a statement. The company plans to invest US$5 billion during the first phase of the new fab, which would have an installed capacity of 30,000 12-inch wafers per month, it said. The
Taiwan’s official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) last month rose 0.2 percentage points to 54.2, in a second consecutive month of expansion, thanks to front-loading demand intended to avoid potential US tariff hikes, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. While short-term demand appeared robust, uncertainties rose due to US President Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade policy, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s economy this year would be characterized by high-level fluctuations and the volatility would be wilder than most expect, Lien said Demand for electronics, particularly semiconductors, continues to benefit from US technology giants’ effort
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
RSS