The crisis in the technology industry in general, and the chip sector in particular, deepened on Thursday as Toshiba and NEC Electronics warned they would incur losses in the year to March, while even star performer Nintendo cut its profit forecast.

Toshiba, which makes everything from memory chips to nuclear power plants, blamed falls in sales and prices that “far exceeded all expectations” and said it would report a record Y280bn ($3.1bn) annual net loss and losses of Y121bn in the third quarter alone.