Pioneer sees wider loss, cuts 10,000 jobs

PIONEER Corp. will cut 10,000 jobs and close its television operations as the slump in global electronics sales forced the company to widen its annual loss forecast to a record ¥130 billion ($1.44 billion).

The company will withdraw from the TV business by March 2010 and cut 16 percent of its full-time work force, plus 4,000 temporary positions, Tokyo-based Pioneer said. The net loss in the year ending March 31 compares with the ¥78-billion deficit it estimated on October 30. Sales will probably fall 28 percent to ¥560 billion, the company said.

Pioneer, poised for a fifth annual deficit, lost a combined ¥100.6 billion at its home electronics business, including plasma TV operations, since the year ended March 2004. The recession increases the challenge for president Susumu Kotani, who took charge in November, to restore profitability by relying on sales of car-navigation systems even as auto sales plunge.

Pioneer said on May 13 it will stop making its own plasma panels by March to get out of money-losing flat-screen TV production. It ended output at two of its three plants in Japan last year and will halt operations at the remaining factory this month.

The withdrawal ends more than 25 years of TV manufacturing at Pioneer, which shifted its focus from cathode ray tube sets to developing plasma screen models in 1991.

In February 2004, Pioneer, then the world’s fifth-largest plasma panel maker, agreed to buy the plasma-TV operations of NEC Corp., the sixth-largest panel maker at the time.

Liquid crystal display TVs outsold plasma sets once prices became competitive because they offer brighter picture quality.

In the three months ended December 31, Panasonic Corp., Samsung SDI Co. and LG Electronics Inc. had a combined share of more than 90 percent of the global plasma screen TV market, researcher DisplaySearch said. (Bloomberg)

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Ixonia manufacturer expands with heavy cutting capacity

Metalcraft Tool & Die Inc., an Ixonia-based tool and die and heavy fabrication shop, recently added a new plasma cutting machine capable of cutting steel plates up to three inches thick.

The new capability makes the company the only manufacturer in the state able to plasma cut material that thick, according to Chris Broege, vice president of the firm.

"We're the first ones in the country to be shipped one of these machines," he said. "It came in about two and a half weeks ago."

The plasma cutter allows Metalcraft Tool & Die to cut steel that would normally require traditional flame cutting, Broege said. Plasma cutting allows for a smoother edge on the finished product, he said, similar to a laser cut piece of steel.

Since moving into heavy fabrication three years ago, Metalcraft Tool & Die has grown from two employees to 15. In January 2008, the company moved into a new 12,500 square foot facility in Ixonia. Because of its growth, it will likely need to add another 10,000 square feet this summer, Broege said.

Metalcraft currently does heavy fabrication for manufacturers of heat treating furnaces and frame chassis used for heavy equipment. The company is hoping its new heavy plasma cutting machine will help it gain new customers in the mining equipment and other industries.