Toshiba’s U.S. Branch Fires 7% of Its Staff

IRVINE — Citing a lag in computer memory chip sales, Toshiba America Electronic Components Inc. fired 7% of its U.S. staff on Wednesday.

The U.S. arm of one of the world’s largest suppliers of semiconductors and integrated circuits laid off 38 people from its Orange County headquarters and 12 others from its offices outside Southern California.

Toshiba America had 700 employees in the U.S., about 260 of them based in Orange County.

“When we were looking at our business plan, it became obvious we couldn’t meet our goals without making some cutbacks,” said Bob Brown, the company’s president and chief operating officer. “Our sales just weren’t as high as we had expected.”

Brown said the privately held company--which makes, among other things, electron tubes and rechargeable batteries--netted $1.8 billion in sales for its last fiscal year. He declined to talk about the firm’s current or projected sales figures.

No further layoffs are expected, Brown said.

Analysts say that, over the past year, Japanese and Korean chip firms have not shared the same robust sales as their American-based counterparts.

Many U.S. firms are focusing on the current demand for microprocessors, which are chips that manipulate and process computer information. Korean and Japanese firms, like Toshiba America Electronic, are focusing on memory chips, which store computer data.

“The supply of memory chips floods the demand for them,” said Jeff Weir, a spokesman for the Semiconductor Industry Assn. in San Jose. “It’s been a rough year for memory chip makers, and it looks like it’s going to stay unsteady for a while.”