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Toshiba to invest 2 tril. yen, expand flash memory output(Kyodo News International (Tokyo) (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) May 11--TOKYO -- Japanese electronics giant Toshiba Corp. said Thursday it will make capital investments totaling 2.04 trillion yen over three years through fiscal 2008, including about 1 trillion yen to strengthen its computer chip business. Its fiscal 2006-2008 business plan shows Toshiba will expand production of flash memory chips by building a fourth and fifth domestic plant amid increasing demands for the NAND-type memories mainly used in digital cameras and portable music players. Toshiba President Atsutoshi Nishida said in a press conference that the company has the world's top-level miniaturization technologies, adding, "We will invest little and little while watching market trends." Projecting the size of the NAND market to grow to over 2.6 trillion yen on a global basis, Toshiba said it will prepare for the market expansion by improving necessary infrastructure. The capital investment plan for three years through March 2009 compares with the 1.13 trillion yen Toshiba spent in the preceding three years to March this year. It will also raise output capacity of hard disk drives by 1.7 times during the three years. Toshiba has set aside about 300 billion yen for the acquisition of Westinghouse Electric Co., the U.S. nuclear power plant arm of British Nuclear Fuels Plc. It expects to complete the purchase of necessary shares between July and September. Nishida said the company expects to mark 600 billion to 700 billion yen in sales revenues from its nuclear business by 2015. Toshiba will put additional money into its digital home appliances business, to stay competitive against rivals including South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co. Toshiba will spend 180 billion yen for planned full-scale production from 2008 of surface conduction electron emitter displays as the company expects demands for panel televisions to grow before the Beijing Olympic Games the same year. The electronics maker aims to reach profitability in its television and other video equipment business during 2007, supported by robust sales in the U.S. market and expected further growth in China and Europe. For fiscal 2008, Toshiba projects 7.8 trillion yen in group sales, compared with 6.3 trillion yen in fiscal 2005, and operating margin of more than 5 percent, up from 3.8 percent. The aggressive move follows Toshiba's robust performances in fiscal 2005. Toshiba said in late April that its group net profit rose 69.8 percent to 78.19 billion yen, or 24.32 yen per share, during the last business year from the prior year for the fourth straight year of growth on the strength of its personal computers and other digital products. Its consolidated operating profit advanced 55.4 percent to 240.61 billion yen, and pretax profit was up 60.2 percent to 178.18 billion yen. All of the group's business segments posted healthy business results, recording year-on-year increases in sales and operating profit, Toshiba said. |