Sony to shut down factories and cut 8,000 jobs

Sony will close five or six factories, curb investment and cut 8,000 jobs worldwide, it announced yesterday, in an attempt to stay profitable through the slump in consumer spending on electronics.

The Japanese electronics giant said the cuts were intended to save Y100bn ($1.1bn) from costs in the fiscal year to March 2010.

The 8,000 job losses are about 5 per cent of the 160,000 employees in Sony's electronics division and a similar number of part-time workers will go as well.

One of the plant closures will be in France, but Sony would not name the other sites to be affected.

The company has been hurt by the weakness of the euro against the yen and said it would raise prices to compensate.

Sony declined to say how much the restructuring would cost, prompting fears that the company will make a net loss in the current financial year. The company cut its net profit forecast by 38 per cent to Y150bn at the end of October and conditions for electronics companies have deteriorated further since then.

索尼(Sony)昨日宣布，將在全球范圍內(nèi)關(guān)閉5至6家工廠，收緊投資，并裁員8000人。在消費者購買電子產(chǎn)品的支出不斷下滑之際，該公司力圖通過這些舉措保持盈利狀態(tài)。

這家日本電子巨頭表示，上述舉措的目標是：在截止2010年3月的財年節(jié)省1000億日元（合11億美元）的成本。

裁員人數(shù)約占索尼電子部門16萬名員工總數(shù)的5%，還有同樣數(shù)量的兼職員工將被解雇。

將要關(guān)閉的一家工廠位于法國，但索尼不愿透露其它工廠所在地。

該公司受到了歐元兌日元匯率走軟的沖擊，表示將提高產(chǎn)品價格，以彌補損失。

索尼拒絕透露重組的成本，這引發(fā)了該公司當前財年將出現(xiàn)凈虧損的擔憂。該公司10月底將凈利潤預期下調(diào)38%，至1500億日元。此后，電子企業(yè)的形勢進一步惡化。