Panasonic to axe thousands, close plants

jobs and close up to 70 factories around the world over the next two years in a bid to pare costs and keep up with Asian rivals.
The maker of Viera TVs and Lumix cameras said it was aiming to trim its workforce of 367 000 at the end of last month to 350 000 by March 2013.
The cull comes on top of nearly 18 000 job cuts made in the past business year, for a total of around 35 000 over three years.
“The figure is huge, but so is the company, and for an old-fashioned one like Panasonic, this is a big move,” said Toru Hashizume, chief investment officer at Stats Investment Management in Tokyo.
Panasonic set aside 110 billion yen (US$1,3 billion) in restructuring expenses for the current financial year.
Company president Fumio Ohtsubo said Panasonic had about 350 manufacturing bases around the world and would look to merge operations where it could.
“I cannot say for sure, but I think it is possible we will cut the number of manufacturing bases by 10 or 20 percent,” he said, declining to comment on which countries might see job cuts.
A Panasonic spokesman said the company did not even have a figure for the number of countries they operate in since recently taking over some other companies.
Once unrivalled, Japan’s consumer electronic firms are facing increasing competition from cheaper Korean and Chinese producers in particular.
Panasonic is seeking to shift its focus to environmental and energy-related businesses such as rechargeable batteries in order to duck competition from Samsung Electronics, LG Electronics and others in consumer technology. – Reuters.