NEC Corp. posted a 48.8 billion yen net loss on a consolidated basis in the first half of fiscal 1999 on 2.27 trillion yen in sales, the country's major computer and memory chip manufacturer reported Monday.
Although sales rose 7 percent from the same period last year, NEC had an operating loss of 7.9 billion yen, a senior official of NEC said.
The firm attributed the operating loss to the unfavorable business in telecommunications equipment, the drop in prices for memory chips, restructuring costs of its affiliated companies and the impact of the yen's appreciation on the dollar.
NEC's operating profit in the telecom equipment sector dropped 79.2 percent to 1.14 trillion yen from the same period last year, while the firm made an operating loss of 7.4 billion yen in electronic devices such as memory chips.
However, the memory chip business was in the black in September, the official said.
Meanwhile, sales of computers and other electronics grew 16.7 percent to 1.03 trillion yen from the same period last year, pointing to recovery in the domestic computer market, the official said.