Japanese electronics giant Fujitsu Ltd posted a first-half loss yesterday and cut an already gloomy full-year earnings forecast saying the war on terror would exacerbate the global economic slowdown.
The company also said it planned to eliminate an additional 4,600 jobs by the end of its current fiscal year, bringing to 21,000 the number of workers to be erased from its worldwide payroll by next March in an effort to reduce costs.
Tokyo-based Fujitsu reported a group loss of ?174.72 billion (US$1.43 billion) for the six months ended in September, reversing a ?17.24 billion profit a year ago.
The impact of slumping global prices for memory chips and other components used in consumer electronics was compounded by one-time losses booked to pay for a costly corporate restructuring program.
Fujitsu was the first big name in Japan's electronics industry to post half-year results, and its competitors' results are expected to be similarly tinged with red ink.
Group sales fell 4.1 percent to ?2.388 trillion (US$19.49 billion), from ?2.491 trillion last year, pulled down by an 18 percent drop at Fujitsu's electronic devices division.
To cover the cost of downsizing that division and reorienting the rest of its business toward profitable ventures, the company said it was booking an extraordinary first-half loss of ?202.9 billion.
Fujitsu expects the profit outlook to get gloomier in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terror attacks on the US. A new forecast projected a group loss of ?310 billion on sales of ?5.2 trillion for the full year through March. That's down from the company's previous estimate in July of a loss of ?220 billion on sales of ?5.4 trillion.
In August, Fujitsu unveiled plans to reduce its work force by 9 percent this fiscal year, eliminating 16,400 of the more than 180,000 employees on its global payroll.
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