Did anyone notice that Komag bounced Friday?
Dow Jones Newswires -- December 2, 1997
Malaysia:Better Computer Disk Drive Demand Early '98 - Komag
By Murray Hiebert
PENANG, Malaysia (AP-Dow Jones)--Komag USA (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd. Managing Director Tan Thiam Seng expects demand for computer disk drives to begin picking up again early next year.
'Since the middle of the year, we've been affected by a cyclical downturn,' said Tan, who heads U.S.-based Komag Inc. (KMAG)'s operations in Penang state, in northern Malaysia.
'The first quarter of next year is still uncertain, but it will be better than the fourth quarter of this year,' Tan told Dow Jones.
Hard-disk manufacturers supplying high-end servers such as companies operating websites have faced a 'softening since the middle of the year,' Komag's Tan noted. In recent weeks, the 'slowdown' has affected companies supplying producers of personal computers.
In neighbouring Singapore, disk-drive giant Seagate Technology Inc. (SEG) has announced it is laying off 500 workers and Western Digital Corp. (WDC) has said it will cut production in the last quarter of the year.
But Tan said he doesn't expect the downturn to last long, at least in part because no cheap and quick alternative for saving and retrieving information has been found to the hard disk. 'Demand should grow in the long term,' Tan said. 'There's a lack of alternative technology with a similar price. So the outlook for the hard disk will continue to be strong.'
Komag, which is listed on Nasdaq in New York, is a major producer of thin-film media, the primary storage medium for digital data in computer disk drives. |
