SOUTH PORTLAND – Fairchild Semiconductor International reported a $63.8 million loss for the second quarter Thursday and announced a restructuring intended to cut costs by up to $58 million a year. The commodity chip maker’s loss for the three months ended June 29 translates to 54 cents per share. During the same period last year, the company posted a loss of $13 million, or 12 cents per share.

Second quarter sales were $347.1 million, down from $360.5 million a year earlier.

The results for the latest quarter included $77 million in pretax charges for restructuring, impairments and debt refinancing.

On a pro forma basis, which excludes amortization of acquisition-related intangibles, restructuring and impairments and other items, Fairchild reported net income of $3.8 million, or 3 cents per diluted share, which was in line with the consensus forecast of analysts surveyed by Thomson First Call. During the year-earlier quarter, the company posted pro forma net income of $7.5 million, or 7 cents per diluted share.

“We’re executing significant restructuring and debt refinancing initiatives to lower our costs from the second quarter baseline,” said Kirk Pond, president, CEO and board chairman. “We expect these steps to generate pretax savings of roughly $53 million to $58 million annually. We expect to realize the impact of these savings starting in the third and fourth quarters of 2003 with the full benefit realized in the first half of 2004.”