Eastman Kodak has said it is cutting another 6,600 posts on top of the 10,000 job losses it announced last month as part of a broad restructuring aimed at boosting profits and lifting the company's stock price.

The world's largest maker of photographic film said the restructuring is expected to save $1bn over the next two years.

Kodak, based in Rochester, New York, has struggled with sluggish sales of traditional film and big losses in its digital imaging business this year.

Kodak hopes to save $1bn in the next two years

The new job losses sent the company's stock up more than 5% in early trading on the New York Stock Exchange, rising $3 per share to $59.50.

Its previous announcement of 10,000 layoffs in November failed to please investors and its stock tumbled 6%.

The company said the job cuts will be from a base of about 100,500 employees worldwide.

In addition to previously announced cuts, including the 10,000 from last month, the company will eliminate a total of 19,900 positions worldwide.

Most of those will be cut by the end of next year and the rest by year-end 1999, it said.

About 8,700 of the lay-offs will be in the United States and 11,200 in other countries.

About 9,400 jobs will be cut from manufacturing and research and development, with 10,500 in the administrative, selling, service and photo-finishing divisions.

Increased competition from Fuji has hurt the once-dominant film giant

Kodak did not provide a breakdown for cuts in digital photography, which involves pictures that are developed and stored electronically, as if they were data files.

Film giant beleaguered by Japanese competition

Kodak has been caught up in a price war with Tokyo-based Fuji Photo Film. The battle for market share intensified this summer when Fuji slashed colour film prices by as much as 30% in the United States.

The price war came when Kodak was struggling to turn a profit in the emerging field of electronic photography. In all, Kodak anticipates a 25% slide in profits this year.

Since then, Kodak also has lost a major trade dispute with Fuji.

The World Trade Organization in December sided with Japan in a dispute over access to its film market.

In the most significant case before the three-year-old trade body, a WTO panel found Washington had not proven charges that Tokyo rigged its domestic market to favor Fuji Photo Film over Kodak.

Kodak said the $1.5 billion restructuring charge will be included in its fourth-quarter results, due January 15.

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