Toshiba Corp may see profit in its liquid-crystal display business recover to more than 10 billion yen ($119 million) for the year to March, compared with its previous forecast of zero, its chief executive said on Thursday.

Norio Sasaki also told Reuters in an interview that he saw demand for NAND flash memory chips used in smartphones and tablet computers as stronger in January-March than in the current October-December quarter.

He added that the effect on NAND shipments from a brief cut in power to the company's Yokkaichi plant in central Japan on December 8 would not become clear until at least the new year.

Toshiba, the world's second-largest supplier of NAND chips after Samsung, had previously said shipments could fall by up to 20 percent in January and February after the company was forced to halt operations there until December 10.

(Reporting by Isabel Reynolds and Kentaro Hamada; Editing by Chris Gallagher)

Japan Manufacturing