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，将在全球范围内关闭5至6家工厂，收紧投资，并裁员8000人。在消费者购买电子产品的支出不断下滑之际，该公司力图通过这些举措保持盈利状态。

这家日本电子巨头表示，上述举措的目标是：在截止2010年3月的财年节省1000亿日元（合11亿美元）的成本。

裁员人数约占索尼电子部门16万名员工总数的5%，还有同样数量的兼职员工将被解雇。

将要关闭的一家工厂位于法国，但索尼不愿透露其它工厂所在地。

该公司受到了欧元兑日元汇率走软的冲击，表示将提高产品价格，以弥补损失。

索尼拒绝透露重组的成本，这引发了该公司当前财年将出现净亏损的担忧。该公司10月底将净利润预期下调38%，至1500亿日元。此后，电子企业的形势进一步恶化。