Tokyo, Japan – Advantest Corp. has announced plans to cut its work force from 4,500 to 3,900 by the end of the current business year, ending March 2003.

The chip equipment manufacturer plans to seek voluntary retirement from some 400 employees from November; the other reductions will be achieved through attrition, reported the Financial Times. Advantest expects to book costs of five billion yen to make additional retirement payments. Meanwhile, the company will halve the number of its optical measuring instrument products to about 110.

The restructuring measures are expected to reduce the company’s costs by 10 billion yen annually from the next business year, starting in April 2003. Advantest said it aims to be profitable even with sales of some 100 billion yen.