The Japanese electronics giant, Hitachi Limited, has dropped its profit forecast for the year to March 31 by 15% to $740m, following the collapse in the world wide price of DRAM chips together with disappointing sales of electrical goods, the company said. Revenue figures have also been downgraded by 8% to $71.043bn. Hitachi is one of a host of companies affected by the depressed price of the DRAM, a standard memory component in current personal computers. Korea’s LG Electronics Inc and Texas Instruments Inc have both been complaining about the problem, and Motorola Inc has chosen to exit the market altogether. Prices for the chip have fallen from around $30 last year to as low as $7. Sales of domestic appliances have also been hit by Japan’s increased national consumption tax, raised to 5% from 3% in April. Hitachi’s announcement mirrors similar pessimistic news from Japanese electronics giant Sharp Corp last week which is predicting its first profits decline in five years
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