Japanese electronic component and data storage maker TDK would cut its global workforce by 11,000, or roughly 12%, amid cost-cutting measures to boost profitability. The process would take place over a two-year period. TDK currently employs around 88,500 people. The company earlier reported a 74.3% drop in fiscal first half net profit from a year earlier to 6.7 billion yen ($85.65 million). In the six months from April to September, TDK suffered a decline in sales of electronic components, which it supplies to sectors such as automakers and consumer electronics firms.
TDK‘s production has been hit by Thailand’s worst flooding in decades, with its four plants there suspended. TDK was established in 1935 as the world’s first company to commercialize a magnetic material called ferrite. In the ensuing years, TDK has conducted research and development programs in ferrite and a variety of other electronic materials and components.