Nikon to cut 1,000 jobs

Japan - Nikon said it will reorganise its manufacturing operations that will see 1,000 jobs lost.

The company said the market fluctuations in the IC and LCD markets are making it difficult to maintain its current four production subsidiaries, and plan to streamline its operations into two instead.

In doing this, the camera and precision equipment maker will cut approximately 800 out of 2,900 jobs at its Japanese manufacturing site and about 200 out of 1,700 overseas marketing and servicing workforce.

There are no reported job losses in Singapore, but there are plans to move a "small part" of its business here to Taiwan, Nikon said.

The restructuring is expected to generate savings of approximately 8 billion yen (US$84.5 million) in fixed costs. The company previously forecast a net loss of 17 billion yen for the current year ending March 31 2010.