Hitachi Ltd. said Friday it will likely dive into the red for the current business year with a group net loss of 55 billion yen, ditching a previous forecast of a 55 billion yen profit, largely due to repair costs linked to turbine damage at two Japanese nuclear power plants.

The Tokyo-based company also said its earnings were hit hard by a slump in hard disk drive operations due to a sharp fall in prices during the first quarter and weak sales of room air conditioners and DVD recorders.

In the previous year, Hitachi posted a group net profit of 37.3 billion yen.

In the revised group earnings projection for fiscal 2006 through next March, Hitachi projects a pretax profit of 160 billion yen, down from 280 billion yen, estimated in April.

Sales estimates were revised upward to 9.74 trillion yen from 9.70 trillion yen, however.

For the first six months of fiscal 2006, Japan's largest comprehensive maker of electrical machinery said its power and industrial systems segment is likely to book an operating loss of 61 billion yen in a turnabout from an initial estimate of 14 billion yen in profit.

The company said about half of the loss is stemming from repair costs for damage to low-pressure steam turbine blades installed at Hamaoka Nuclear Power Station No. 5 and Unit 2 of Shika Nuclear Power Station, run by Chubu Electric Power Co. and Hokuriku Electric Power Co., respectively.

Last month, Chubu Electric Power officials said the company is considering filing a damages suit against Hitachi regarding an accident that led a nuclear reactor in Shizuoka Prefecture to shut down in June.

Chubu Electric is expected to seek more than 100 billion yen in compensation if the No. 5 reactor at the Hamaoka plant remains out of action until the end of March next year.