Re: Chat with IR & reposting article: B.Gates on Japan
PX, TGW and all:
I'm not posting the article because of Gates incredible macro-economic insight but rather because of the last few paragraphs with some figures in it.
I also called WDCs IR dept. today (they now seem to sit in N.Y.): Bob Blair was very forthcoming and sounded a credible person to these ears. Have you met the guy before, PX?
As always, I forgot half the questions I wanted to ask. FYI, I just quickly post what I can remember. I hope PX is still around to read it <g>.
- Blair said the only significant weak spot in Asia that they can currently identify is Japan. But this is going on for a "few quarters already", so they have discounted that already.
- Other Asian countries are only marginal markets for WDC products at the moment.
- All WDC has only 3 manufacturing (or rather assembly) plants for their DDs: 2 in Singapore, 1 in Malaysia.
- They have one plant in CA where they produce their own media products (the platters). In all they produce 40% themselves and buy 60% from external suppliers.
- As I understood, they also do not produce the read-heads, they buy them from outside. I forgot to ask about the rest of the DD components.
- Blair indicated that he sees WDC rather benefitting from recent currency turmoils in SGP and Malaise-ia <g> because it lowers their labour/manufacturing costs.
- Last FY per 06/97 they shipped 23mio units of DD. In the the qtr per 09/97, the shipped 7.3mio units, which was record quarterly volume. They first anticipated to ship close to 7.5mio this qtr, but have scaled this back to 6+mio units.
- He would not say what total maximum output capacity was for WDC, but only said that "if necessary, we have significant upside left in capacity".
-The biggest two competitors in Asia are Fujitsu and Hyundai/Maxtor which he said have a market share of global units shipped "in the high teens" as he put it (that's both of them added together).
My taket: So these 18% are dumping right now and ruining the rest of the market? I don't know, just asking for some comments.
I'll check my notes again tomorrow in the office to see if I forgot something. That's all I can come up with right now. Are we a little smarter now? Hope this helps,
Thomas
P.S.: PX, I really like your idea about finding an Asian source. Do you know if the two guys you cited are based in Asia?
Now Repost Article:
-----Start-------------------
10:50 PM ET 12/09/97
Microsoft's Gates sees Japan PC market rebound
TOKYO, Dec 10 (Reuters) - Japan's personal computer market
will likely pick up with the introduction of next-generation
models after continuing economic weakness crimped sales this
year, Microsoft Corp chairman Bill Gates was quoted as
saying in Wednesday's Nihon Keizai Shimbun.
Gates told the Japanese business daily in an interview that
he believes the slowdown in PC sales in Japan was caused by
continuing uneasiness over a slumping economy characterised by a
series of failures at financial institutions.
Gates also said next-generation PCs, which would be able to
process images more quickly than contemporary models, as well as
use high-capacity digital video discs (DVDs), would revitalise
the market.
A spokesman for Microsoft Japan confirmed Gates' remarks.
Software giant Microsoft plans to introduce its new
operating system, Windows 98, to the Japanese market next year.
Gates, on a three-day visit to Japan, met Japan's Prime
Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto on Tuesday and talked about the
increasing importance of the Internet, the spokesman said.
A Microsoft executive at the company headquarters said on
Tuesday that the firm was feeling the impact of a sharp slowdown
in computer sales in Japan, once one of the company's
fastest-growing markets.
"The PC purchase rate in Japan has slowed down very
significantly compared to two years ago," Microsoft's chief
operating officer Bob Herbold said in an interview with Reuters.
"That does have an impact on our business."
Industry research firm IDC Japan said on Tuesday that PC
shipments in Japan are expected to total 8.1 million units this
year, up just 0.1 percent from 1996.
((Tokyo Equities Desk +81-3 3432-9404
tokyo.equities.newsroom@reuters.com)) |
