The strong rebound in the NAND flash market helped reduce Toshiba's losses in calendar Q4 (Toshiba's FY Q3) to $117.5m from $1.3bn in Q408. The other main factor in the recovery was strong demand for nuclear generating plant. Revenue rose 6%.
Toshiba said it was on-track to make a net loss of $555m for the full fiscal year ending at the end of the current quarter, but would have an operating profit of $1.1bn for the year.
Toshiba's consolidated net sales for the first nine months of FY2009 were $49.3bn, decrease of $5bn from the first nine months of 2008.
Total sales of electronic devices declined, and the semiconductor business had lower
sales. Sales increased in memories, reflecting growth in demand for NAND Flash
memories and price stability, but system LSIs and discretes saw weak sales due to lower demand, price erosion and the impact of a higher yen. The LCD business also saw a significant sales decline.
Despite the impact from yen appreciation on the Semiconductor business, higher volumes, effective cost reductions and price stability in NAND Flash memories generated a significant improvement and a return to profitability in memories.
Toshiba sees the Asian economy showing signs of an upturn, including an improved situation in China that reflects the strong stimulation of domestic demand.
It sees the US and European economies showing signs of improvement, but sees the unemployment levels continuing to rise and the overall situation is expected to remain severe.
Toshiba sees the Japanese economy beginning to show positive results from emergency stimulus packages. However, it is still falling short of a self-sustained recovery, and the continuing severity in employment leaves the overall outlook highly unclear.