Furukawa Electric to Restructure Loss Making Items’ Operation

Furukawa Electric has launched a review of products mix in industrial electric wire and copper tube as a part of the cost cutting program for domestic operations, announced on results briefing held on Monday. The firm plans to move the production of some items to offshore plants eyeing withdrawal from unprofitable items. The firm expects several hundreds million yen of cost reduction per year for restructuring of every business.

Furukawa Electric plans to move production of some industrial wire products to overseas plant including newly established Chinese joint venture, Huatong Furukawa (Tangshan) Cable. The firm plans to reduce production cost through the production transfer.

The firm agreed with labor union to streamline domestic copper tube plants. The firm eyes production shift for some items to offshore plant when the operations in China and Thailand have reserve capacity. The firm reduces production cost by restructuring of the Japanese operations and by improving operation level of offshore plants. The firm aims to complete the restructuring by end of March 2012.