Chipmaker Renesas cutting 25% of Japan workforce: reports

TOKYO:  Renesas Electronics will slash 5,400 jobs in Japan, or about one quarter of its domestic workforce, reports said Wednesday, as the struggling Japanese chipmaker overhauls its money-losing business.

The leading Nikkei business daily reported that the firm would usher in the cuts by the end of March 2016 and had already sent a plan to its labour union with details still to be negotiated.

The mass circulation Yomiuri Shimbun and other Japanese newspapers had similar reports, saying the job cuts were tied to plans to close factories at home.

In a statement, Renesas responded that "we are studying various measures, including personnel plans, towards improving profitability but no decision has been made".

In June, Renesas said it would shed more than a thousand jobs in Europe, part of a wider layoff plan that has seen thousands of cuts in recent years. As of late last year, the company had about 28,500 employees globally.

Renesas, the world's biggest supplier of automotive micro-controller chips, was created through a merger of the chip units of Hitachi, Mitsubishi Electric and NEC.

The firm has been hammered by intense competition with US IT giant Intel and South Korean rival Samsung Electronics, stoking growing losses.

Last year, it received 150 billion yen (US$1.44bil) in capital from the government-backed Innovation Corporation Network of Japan and leading companies including auto giant Toyota.

The firm, due to report its latest financial results next month, still booked an 8.8 billion yen net loss in the three months to September. Its Tokyo-listed shares fell 3.74% to 591 yen in late morning trade – AFP.