Japan's Toshiba returns to black

Toshiba, whose business spans consumer electronics and nuclear reactors, reported a net profit of 137.8 billion yen (1.7 billion dollars) for the financial year, reversing a bottom line loss of 19.7 billion yen a year earlier.

The company's operating profit nearly doubled to 240.3 billion yen on revenue of 6.4 trillion yen, up 1.7 percent from the previous year, it said.

The electronics giant said the profit and sales gains were mainly due to strong demand for television sets and its memory chips, which are used in smartphones and tablet computers.

For the year to March 2012, it forecast a net profit of 140 billion yen, an operating profit of 300 billion yen on revenue of 7.0 trillion yen.

But it said "the outlook still remains uncertain" due to the impact of the disasters that paralysed the economy in northeastern Japan and crippled a nuclear power plant in Fukushima.

Toshiba was forced to close a chip-making factory in Iwate Prefecture in Japan's quake-hit northeast, which has since partially resumed production.

Supply chains have been broken and power shortages have hit production across key industries, with the impact of the disasters threatening to throw Japan's export-driven economy into a temporary recession, analysts say.

Many key component manufacturers are based in the worst-hit regions of Japan, their facilities damaged by the 9.0 magnitude earthquake or inundated by the giant wave that followed.

The shortage of key parts has hit companies worldwide and affected production across Europe, the United States and Asia.

(c) 2011 AFP