Toshiba cuts 18,800 jobs

More than 18,000 workers at Toshiba are set to become the latest victims of the downturn in demand for personal computers as the Japanese semiconductor manufacturer seeks to cut costs.

The jobs losses account for 10 per cent of Toshiba's global workforce.

The Japanese firm which earlier this year predicted profits of around £300m for the financial year has since acknowledged that the year to March 2002 is likely to produce losses in the region of Y115bn (£664m).

Toshiba has been hit hard by the drop in demand for dynamic random-access memory (DRAM), the memory chips commonly found in PCs. Analysts say the value of these chips for the manufacturers has dropped by 90 per cent over the last year.

Earlier this month, Toshiba announced it was cutting chip production by a quarter due to a slowdown in demand and market oversupply. The company still produces 20 million DRAM chips a month.

According to reports Toshiba may seek a tie-up with German chipmaker, Infineon in a bid to save money.