Toshiba to Increase Engineers for Nuclear Power Plant Biz

Tokyo, July 4 (Jiji Press)–Toshiba Corp. President Atsutoshi Nishida said in an interview with Jiji Press Friday that the company plans to hire some thousand engineers over the next several years to meet strong demand for nuclear power plants.

Toshiba expects to receive orders for about 40 nuclear power plants worldwide by 2015 as awareness of global warming is increasing and measures for curbing greenhouse gas emissions are being taken.

Besides boosting the personnel for the business, Toshiba aims to increase its output capacity of relevant equipment. It is planning to produce steam turbines at a plant in Yokohama, which currently makes turbines for thermal power plants.

Toshiba hopes to recoup costs for the acquisition of U.S. nuclear power equipment maker Westinghouse Electric Co. in fewer than 10 years rather than 13 years previously eyed, Nishida said.

Nishita also said the electronics maker aims to sell at least 12 million personal computers worldwide in fiscal 2008, against 10 million in the previous year, targeting markets in emerging economies such as Russia.

In 2009, the company plans to launch PCs equipped with fuel cells.

Toshiba, which has pulled the plug on its High-Definition DVD operations, plans to launch DVD recorders and players that can convert conventional DVD-quality images to high-definition levels.END

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