Japan's Matsushita Electric Industrial, maker of the Panasonic brand, yesterday announced up to 1,400 layoffs ,with the Philippines bearing the brunt of the cuts as it scales down its output of mobile handsets.
The group said it planned to stop making GSM cellphones and concentrate on new third-generation (3G) handsets.
Amid fierce competition in the mobile market, Matsushita aims to cut costs by unifying its platforms and core technologies for Japan and overseas.
"We've operated GSM manufacturing since 1992, but the situation has become severe due to increasing competition and declining prices," group president Yoshiaki Kushiki told reporters.
"We have to focus on the domestic operation, which is the development of products with more advanced features, and this has led us to downsize the overseas operations," he said.
More than half of the job cuts will be made in the Philippines with the closure of a Panasonic factory employing 842 people producing GSM handsets in the Province of Laguna, south of Manila.
Production at a site in the Czech Republic at Pardubice-Stare which has 210 workers will also be axed.
The electronics giant will also focus on a Linux operating system-based global platform, resulting in the closure of research and development operations in the US state of Georgia as in Berkshire, Britain.
A further site in Beijing will switch from GSM handset production to 3G.
Matsushita estimates the cost of the restructuring at about ?10 billion (US$83 million) and expects benefits of about ?7 billion.
BYPASSING CHINA TARIFFS: In the first five months of this year, Foxconn sent US$4.4bn of iPhones to the US from India, compared with US$3.7bn in the whole of last year Nearly all the iPhones exported by Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) from India went to the US between March and last month, customs data showed, far above last year’s average of 50 percent and a clear sign of Apple Inc’s efforts to bypass high US tariffs imposed on China. The numbers, being reported by Reuters for the first time, show that Apple has realigned its India exports to almost exclusively serve the US market, when previously the devices were more widely distributed to nations including the Netherlands and the Czech Republic. During March to last month, Foxconn, known as Hon Hai Precision Industry
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and the University of Tokyo (UTokyo) yesterday announced the launch of the TSMC-UTokyo Lab to promote advanced semiconductor research, education and talent development. The lab is TSMC’s first laboratory collaboration with a university outside Taiwan, the company said in a statement. The lab would leverage “the extensive knowledge, experience, and creativity” of both institutions, the company said. It is located in the Asano Section of UTokyo’s Hongo, Tokyo, campus and would be managed by UTokyo faculty, guided by directors from UTokyo and TSMC, the company said. TSMC began working with UTokyo in 2019, resulting in 21 research projects,
Ashton Hall’s morning routine involves dunking his head in iced Saratoga Spring Water. For the company that sells the bottled water — Hall’s brand of choice for drinking, brushing his teeth and submerging himself — that is fantastic news. “We’re so thankful to this incredible fitness influencer called Ashton Hall,” Saratoga owner Primo Brands Corp’s CEO Robbert Rietbroek said on an earnings call after Hall’s morning routine video went viral. “He really helped put our brand on the map.” Primo Brands, which was not affiliated with Hall when he made his video, is among the increasing number of companies benefiting from influencer
Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) chairman Barry Lam (林百里) yesterday expressed a downbeat view about the prospects of humanoid robots, given high manufacturing costs and a lack of target customers. Despite rising demand and high expectations for humanoid robots, high research-and-development costs and uncertain profitability remain major concerns, Lam told reporters following the company’s annual shareholders’ meeting in Taoyuan. “Since it seems a bit unworthy to use such high-cost robots to do household chores, I believe robots designed for specific purposes would be more valuable and present a better business opportunity,” Lam said Instead of investing in humanoid robots, Quanta has opted to invest
RSS