Production pruning - Showa Denko to withdraw from some aluminium operations

Dow Jones reported that Showa Denko KK will withdraw from aluminium extrusion materials operations due to slack demand for housing starts and weakness in corporate capital outlays. The Japanese maker of petrochemical and electronics products said that it will shut down the production line by the end of this year. It will also offer voluntary retirement to its workers at its domestic facilities but hasn't set any target for applications due to a cutback in its workforce via worker reallocation and natural attrition. The company will book a special loss of JPY 1.5 billion from the plant shutdown and the write off of these facilities for this fiscal year ending March 2010. It also expects a special loss of JPY 3.7 billion due to retirement allowance costs. But these losses have already been factored into its earnings outlook for this fiscal year. (Sourced from Dow Jones)