Japanese chipmaker Renesas Electronics Corp said it aims to start shipments of next-generation 40-nanometre microcontrollers during the business year starting in April 2014, by outsourcing more production to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co, or TSMC.

Renesas, which announced an outsourcing agreement on Monday with TSMC, the world's biggest contract chip maker, said it aims to start shipments of cutting-edge 90-nanometre microcontrollers from the business year starting next April.

The Japanese firm, struggling with high costs and mounting losses, said it expects to produce about 30 percent of its chips overseas by 2016/17, double the 15 percent in the year ended in March.

(Reporting by Mari Saito; Editing by Michael Watson)