STMicro to cut 4,500 jobs in 2009

PARIS: French-Italian semiconductor maker STMicroelectronics said on Tuesday it will cut 4,500 jobs, a tenth of its workforce, as it tries to respond to the global slowdown.

STMicro, ranked fifth among global chipmakers, registered a loss in 2008 of $786 million (596 million euros) and said it would try to reduce its costs by $ 700 million in 2009.

That includes cutting 4,500 jobs this year, and the closure of three factories in the United States and Morocco that had already been announced.

The company said sales fell by 17 per cent in the final quarter of last year to 2.28 billion dollars, and that with the sharp decline in demand its factories would likely be operating at around 50 percent of their capacity in the first three months of this year.