Japan's Renesas mired in red on microchip sales drop

Japanese microchip maker Renesas Electronics said on Monday it stayed in the red in the three months to September as the global economy slowed, despite a recovery from the March quake disaster. Renesas logged a group net loss of 8.8 billion yen ($111 million) in July-September, smaller than a loss of 33.2 billion yen in April-June but heavier than a loss of 8.2 billion yen a year earlier. Sales tumbled 17.6 percent to 243.3 billion yen due to slack global demand, lingering production delays due to the March 11 quake and tsunami and the yen's rise against the dollar, the company said in a statement. Renesas fell into the red on an operating basis, reporting a loss of 10.1 billion yen in a turnaround from a year-before profit of 1.1 billion yen. "The Japanese economy got on a recovery track as the nation reconstructed itself from the disaster. But the recovery pace slowed toward the end of the term due to a global slowdown and the yen's continued strength," the firm said. "Domestic demand showed some recovery in our mainstay business of semiconductors as production was restored after the disaster. "But (overall) demand has hardly showed an upturn ahead of the year-end shopping season," it said, adding demand from emerging countries had also slowed as a murky outlook for the global economy had become murkier. Renesas had a roughly 40 percent share in the global market for automobile engine and brake system microcontrollers, but its production was hit hard by the powerful quake and tsunami that rocked northeast Japan. Renesas said its half-year net loss came to 42.0 billion yen against a year-before loss of 41.2 billion due mainly to production losses because of the disaster. It reported an operating loss of 29.2 billion yen as sales fell 23.3 percent to 450.6 billion yen. The company lowered its full-year sales forecast to 968 billion yen from an earlier estimate of 1.02 trillion yen while leaving profit forecasts unchanged. Renesas expects a net loss of 40 billion yen for the full year to March 2012, an improvement from a 115 billion yen net loss last year, when the company incurred restructuring costs. It forecast its operating loss will be 28 billion yen.