Toshiba plans to revive its staggering personal computer operations by consolidating its production base in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, officials of its China unit said Wednesday.

Toshiba China will shift PC production in Shanghai and the Philippines to a plant in the city, they said.

Toshiba hopes to double its output from 1.5 million units in 2003 to 3 million units a year while aiming to cut costs through consolidated operations, they said.

Toshiba's move comes after China's top PC maker Lenovo Group bought International Business Machines's PC unit earlier this month.

Toshiba plans to transfer its PC production in Shanghai, where it produces 200,000 units a year for the Chinese market, to Hangzhou in January. It will retain its product development and other sections at the Shanghai factory.

Toshiba plans to end PC production at the Philippine factory at the end of the year to focus on producing hard disk drives, whose sales for the portable digital music player market are brisk.

Toshiba's PC business has slowed down due to the fierce competition with US manufacturer Dell and others. Its PC sector reported a loss of 49 billion yen in fiscal 2003, prompting the manufacturer to consolidate overseas production.

Toshiba plans to concentrate its design and development operations in its factory in Ome in western Tokyo.

(Agencies)

consolidate: to unite into one system or whole; combine（鞏固，整合）