Japan
Telecommunications
Furukawa Electric is considering closing or selling five of the 10 optical fiber plants it bought last autumn from Lucent Technologies for $2.2 billion. With capacity utilization rates remaining low, the company will also cut its work force in related divisions by 20% from the current 3,700 by year-end. The global telecommunications slump has caused the firm to post a fiscal 2001 group net loss.
