Its net loss in the three months to June blew out to 38.4 billion yenmillion dollars) from a loss of 11.6 billion yen the previous year.

The firm's recurring loss widened to 30.9 billion yen from 5.2 billion yen previously, while revenue inched up 1.6 percent to 1.9 trillion yen.

"During the quarter, consumption and production were slow in Asia, particularly China, due to the effects of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS)," Hitachi Ltd. said in a statement.

Sluggish economic activity in the United States as well as reduced capital investment by companies at home also weighed on Hitachi's bottom line.

Despite the weak results, Hitachi slightly upgraded its earnings expectations for the six months to September, but left a forecast for the full year to March 2004 unchanged, expecting a net profit of five billion yen, pretax profit of 110 billion yen on revenue of eight trillion yen.

SPACE.WIRE