August 1, 2001 – Tokyo, Japan – NEC Corp. plans to reduce the number of workers in its electronic device division by 3,000 to 4,000 as part of restructuring plans for the business, reported The Nihon Keizai Shimbun.

The job cuts will affect both domestic and overseas workers. The company will consolidate three out of eight domestic semiconductor assembly plants and will downsize overseas chip operations in the UK and the US.

It also intends to spin off its electronic parts division, which manufactures capacitors and other products.

NEC will lay off about half of the 1,600 staff now employed at its Scotland plant, halving the current monthly output of the equivalent of 28,000 200mm wafers.

The company will also halve workers on the payroll at its plant in California, a facility where NEC has decided to abandon manufacturing by laying off 700 workers.

The electronic device division recorded a consolidated operating loss of 17 billion yen in the April to June period. The facilities and personnel cost cutbacks are aimed at pushing the division back into the black.

Domestic semiconductor operations will see reductions mainly in the number of contract workers at the company’s eight chip assembly factories in Japan. The firm plans to merge three production units now located in Kumamoto, Oita and Fukuoka prefectures this autumn with a view to increasing efficiency.

NEC will not lay off any full-time staff employed at domestic plants.

The company owns a total of 17 chip plants in Japan and overseas. The number of employees at the electronic device division, including those at group firms, stands at about 40,000.