TOKYO: Japan's top chipmaker Toshiba Corp. tumbled to a record annual loss amid sinking global demand that has forced it to cut thousands of jobs. Toshiba reported Friday a 343.6 billion yen ($3.5 billion) net loss for the fiscal year ended March, compared with a 127.4 billion yen profit a year earlier. It was the company's biggest loss ever and its first annual net loss in seven years. The Tokyo-based company's annual sales declined 13 percent to 6.65 trillion yen ($67.2 billion) largely due to faltering business in semiconductors as well as digital equipment and home electronics. For the January-March quarter alone, the company suffered a net loss of 184.0 billion yen ($1.9 billion) on sales totaling 1.67 trillion yen ($185.7 billion). Toshiba projects a net loss of 50 billion yen ($505 million) for the current fiscal year through March 2010. It forecasts sales to rise modestly, to 6.8 trillion yen ($68.7 billion) on an improvement in the mobile phone and chip businesses, as well as home appliances. Toshiba said last month that it was expecting a net loss of 350 billion yen for the just-ended fiscal year - up from its earlier forecast of a 280 billion yen loss - due to writing off 85 billion yen in deferred tax assets. But Japan's top chipmaker said its operating loss was a smaller-than-expected 250.2 billion yen ($2.53 billion) versus 246.4 billion-yen profit a year earlier, cushioned by the stabilization of prices of flash memory chips used for music players and digital cameras. Hit by a plunge in demand amid the global economic slump, Toshiba said in January it would cut 4,500 contract workers and delay or cancel investments in new chip plants. In March, Toshiba picked a new president, Norio Sasaki, 59, who will take the helm in June following approval at a meeting of shareholders. In a bid to solidify its hard disk drive operation and strengthen its financial standing, the company in April finalized a 30 billion yen deal with computer maker Fujitsu Ltd.