Toshiba Corp, Japan’s largest chipmaker, forecast a record annual loss as a deepening global recession worsens the glut in the industry and drives down prices of semiconductors used in consumer electronics.
The net loss will probably reach ¥280 billion (US$3.1 billion) in the year to March 31, compared with profit of ¥127.4 billion a year earlier, the Tokyo-based company said yesterday. Toshiba in September forecast it would generate profits of ¥70 billion.
The projections highlight the extent of the slump in demand worldwide that drove larger chipmaker Samsung Electronics Co to report its first quarterly loss and forced Intel Corp to say its 87-quarter streak of profitability may end.
Toshiba is cutting output and postponing construction of factories to weather the glut after chip prices tumbled 62 percent last year.
Toshiba said it could post an operating loss of ¥280 billion this fiscal year, compared with an operating profit of ¥238.1 billion a year earlier and its forecast in September of an income of ¥150 billion. Sales are likely to fall 13 percent to ¥6.7 trillion, short of its previous goal of ¥7.7 trillion.
The company’s net loss outlook is worse than the ¥71 billion loss estimated by Merrill Lynch & Co. The operating loss will probably reach ¥48 billion on ¥7.1 trillion in sales, Simon Woo at Merrill Lynch wrote in a report dated Jan. 15.
Toshiba said it’s delaying construction of a chip plant in Yokkaichi, central Japan, until next year and was “indefinitely” delaying building another factory in northern Japan. The company last month said it would cut production of NAND flash memory by 30 percent from this month, citing slowing demand.
Shares of Toshiba rose 4.9 percent to close at ¥385 on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, before the company’s announcement. The stock lost 56 percent last year.
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