NEC Electronics, the Santa Clara, California-based division of the giant Japanese electronics group, says it has been forced to restructure its operations, resulting in the loss of 400 jobs or 13% of the work force. In a statement, NEC said it was reacting to the worldwide slump in semiconductor business and was trying to make itself more cost effective. The job losses will hit NEC’s Santa Clara offices, as well as its manufacturing facility in Roseville, California and various other US regional sales offices. The US division, which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of NEC Corp of Japan, manufactures microprocessors and other semiconductor devices in the US, as well as flat panel displays and batteries. In June this year, the company announced a plan to invest $1.4bn over four years to upgrade its Roseville semiconductor plant to handle 300mm wafers. The investment is intended to secure NEC’s future products in the multimedia, system-on-a-chip market, with production commencing in 2002. A spokesperson for the company said the newly announced restructuring would not hamper this investment. The spokesperson also confirmed that the US restructuring is separate from the previously announced job losses at the parent company. In October, NEC Corp in Japan said it expected to make losses for the half year to September of $150m on sales of $16bn, the first such losses in five years. The poor results prompted NEC to announce 6,000 job losses and a major restructuring exercise.
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