Hitachi expecting net loss for second consecutive year

Japan's Hitachi Ltd said yesterday it expected to spend a second straight year in the red, incurring a net loss of almost US$700 million as its flat-screen television business slumped.

Hitachi revised its forecast of a ¥10 billion (US$97.4 million) profit for the year ending March 31, saying it now expected a group net loss of ¥70 billion.

The company said it expected operating losses of ¥112 billion at the digital media and home-use devices division owing to "prolonged drops in market prices of flat televisions and lower-than-expected sales of large-screen models."

It will also book a total of ¥56 billion in restructuring charges from its loss-making plasma panel and plasma TV business, a statement said.

Plasma television sales have been falling behind those for liquid-crystal displays (LCD), a rival high-definition technology.

Pioneer Corp said last week that it was giving up on producing plasma panels. The move left Hitachi and industry leader Matsushita, the maker of the Panasonic brand, as the only Japanese firms left in the business.

The projected loss is steeper than the ¥32.8 billion net loss reported in the financial year to March last year.

Hitachi had blamed last year's loss largely on the one-off factor of repairing faulty turbines it had supplied to two nuclear plants and projected a return to the black this year.

Hitachi only last month cut its net profit forecast for the year to ¥10 billion from ¥40 billion owing to the cost of measures to revamp the television division.

At the time, it expected operating losses from the division to be ¥98 billion.