Mitsubishi Electric Corp. said Tuesday that it may post a consolidated net loss of 33 billion yen for the 1997 business year, due mainly to declining profits in semiconductors and home appliances.

According to the company's revised profit forecast, the firm will post a consolidated pretax loss of 40 billion yen for the current business year that ends March 31; it had earlier forecast a pretax profit of 67.9 billion yen. The firm is also projecting no consolidated operating profit for the current business year.

However, consolidated sales are projected to increase slightly to 38 trillion yen, a revision from the initial forecast of 37.25 trillion yen. Due to mushrooming restructuring costs and the depreciation of stocks held by the company, Mitsubishi will report extraordinary losses of 40 billion yen for the current business year.

The company has already decided to close some U.S. semiconductor and television production lines in March because they are operating in the red. "Although the restructuring in the U.S. is almost complete, we haven't yet touched the other areas," said Michiyasu Hirahara, managing director of Mitsubishi Electric.

Hirahara's remark is an indication that the firm is considering further restructuring -- including in Japan. He also said the decline in memory chip prices has sharply reduced the company's profit and the sluggish domestic personal computer market has also affected the company's liquid crystal display businesses.

Mitsubishi Electric alone is expected to post a pretax profit of 5 billion yen and a net loss of 33 billion yen, according to the revised estimates by the company.