Japan may look immune from recession in the computer industry, but it ain’t so, and at current prices of $14.73 to $22.09 for 4M-bit memory chips, only Hitachi Ltd is thought to be making money on the things, so it, Toshiba Corp and NEC Corp say they are all scaling back planned expansions of output for the second half of the Japanese fiscal year, and where they had been going for 40% to 80% increases over the next few months, they will scale that back to less than half, and use the spare capacity for statics and for custom logic devices; overall, monthly 4M production in Japan is expected to be 25% below forecasts at the end of the year, says the International Herald Tribune.
