April 25, 2003 – Tokyo, Japan – Fujitsu Ltd. said today it expected its chip production to rise to 440 billion yen ($3.67 billion) this business year from last year’s 398.3 billion.

It planned to trim capital spending on semiconductors, however, to 35 billion yen in the business year that started on April 1 from 38 billion yen in the prior year, according to Reuters.

In addition, Fujitsu today reported a net loss of 122.1 billion yen ($1.02 billion) for the year ended March 31. It made a record 382.54 billion yen loss a year earlier as the moribund telecoms equipment market forced it to make costly job cuts and factory closures.

The chips-to-computers conglomerate targeted a rebound for the current year, aided by a pickup in its computer software and services business.

Fujitsu, like Japan’s other chipmaking conglomerates, is seeing modest improvements in its chip business after a record industry downturn in 2001 and a subsequently sluggish recovery forced it to make hefty job cuts, close factories and forge alliances with other manufacturers.