Japan’s Matsushita Electric Industrial Co plans to halve the number of its overseas production sites over the next five years to boost profitability, a report said.

The Panasonic brand maker, which currently has about 170 production sites abroad, plans to shut down those showing poor financial performance in a bid to raise its operating profit margin to 10 per cent in the year starting April 2010, double this year’s projected margin of 5 percent, the Nihon Keizai business daily reported.
A company spokesman said Matsushita had no specific plans to cut half of its sites.
Matsushita president Fumio Ohtsubo has said the company would seek growth by boosting overseas sales and aggressive cost cuts. Its overseas sales accounted for 48 per cent of its group revenues of 8.9 trillion yen ($76.3 billion) in the last business year.