■ELECTRONICS
Sanyo posts US$976m loss
Sanyo Electric Co yesterday reported a net loss of US$976 million for the financial year due to falling sales and restructuring costs but said it expected to break even this year. Sanyo, which is being bought by its bigger rival Panasonic Corp, said net losses reached ¥93.23 billion (US$976 million) in the 12 months to March, reversing the previous year’s profit of ¥28.7 billion. Operating profit tumbled 89.1 percent to ¥8.28 billion as sales fell 12.2 percent to ¥1.77 trillion amid the global recession. The company expects no profit on a net basis for the current business year. But operating profit is forecast to rise to ¥25 billion although sales are projected to fall 6.2 percent to ¥1.66 trillion.
■COMPUTERS
NEC pulls out of project
Struggling electronics giant NEC Corp said yesterday it would withdraw from a Japanese government-backed supercomputer project as part of its efforts to cut costs during the economic slump. NEC has taken part in the project to develop a next-generation supercomputer since 2007 along with the Riken institute and two other electronics companies, Hitachi Ltd and Fujitsu Ltd. But NEC, which lost ¥296.6 billion (US$3.05 billion) in the year to March, decided to leave the supercomputer project as the team has completed the development stage and is now moving to testing and manufacturing.
■TELECOMS
SingTel profits drop 17%
Singapore Telecommunications Ltd (SingTel), the largest telephone company in Southeast Asia, says its profit fell 17 percent in the January-March period as a stronger local currency undermined the value of earnings from its units abroad. SingTel said in a statement yesterday that its net income for its fiscal fourth quarter fell to S$903 million (US$618 million), down from S$1.09 billion a year earlier. The firm said the global economic slowdown hurt sales, which slid 5.1 percent to S$3.6 billion. “The economies of Singapore, Australia and the region are expected to slow in 2009 given the global downturn,” the company said.
■STEEL
ArcelorMittal cuts US jobs
ArcelorMittal, the world’s biggest steelmaker, will cut 1,000 jobs at its Indiana Harbor West Mill in Indiana in July as economies slump. The cuts were confirmed by spokesman Giles Read in London yesterday. Luxembourg-based ArcelorMittal has shed jobs and cut output to about 50 percent of capacity after the world economic slump curbed demand for steel from automakers and builders. Chief executive officer Lakshmi Mittal said on Tuesday that global steel demand this year will decline by as much as 20 percent.
■TRADE
Beijing slams US bill
China rejected claims it has manipulated yuan exchange rate policies to tilt trade flows against the US, saying yesterday that proposed legislation before the US Congress could stoke protectionism. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu (馬朝旭) made the statement in response to US congressional moves to curb China’s exports unless Beijing realigns its exchange rate to make those exports more costly, which would help narrow the two countries’ trade gap. The legislation would require the government to impose anti-dumping and countervailing duties on imports from a country whose currency has been “misaligned” for a long time.
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