Toshiba says to go in red for first half

TOKYO: Japan's Toshiba Corp. said on Friday it expected to go in to the red for the first half of the financial year as its computer chip business is hit by weak demand.

Toshiba said it now forecast a net loss of 50 billion yen ($ 468 million) in the six months through September, compared with a previous expectation of a 15 billion yen profit.

In the same period a year ago, Toshiba saw a net profit of 45.7 billion yen.

"The semiconductor business is expected to record a significant deficit in the first half of fiscal 2008," reflecting weak demand for microchips for digital consumer products, the company said in a statement.

It said the trend would continue into the second half. On an operating level, Toshiba slashed its half-year forecast from a profit of 70 billion yen to a loss of 30 billion yen, with sales projected at 3.55 trillion yen, down from an earlier forecast of 3.80 billion yen.

For the full year, Toshiba said it expected net profit to drop by nearly half to 70 billion yen from an earlier forecast of 130 billion yen.

It also nearly halved its forecast for operating profit to 150 billion yen from 290 billion yen.

Sales are expected to total 7.7 trillion yen, falling short of the initial projection of 8.0 trillion yen.