Seagate Technology Expects Production Growth to Exceed 20%
Bloomberg News
February 8, 1999, 12:52 a.m. PT
Seagate Technology Expects Production Growth to Exceed 20%
Singapore, Feb. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Seagate Technology Inc.,
the No. 1 independent computer disk-drive maker, expects the
number of units it makes to increase by more than the 20 percent
forecast for the industry in 1999 as demand for its products
picks up, an executive said.
Seagate ''will at least track the industry's growth,'' said
Mike Stears, a Seagate senior vice president.
Stears said the company's ''time-to-market'' strategy of
being the first to introduce products to the marketplace will
give it an edge over rivals such as Maxtor Corp. and
International Business Machines Corp. Seagate previously focused
on competing by price.
Stears' comments come as Seagate returned to profit in its
second fiscal quarter which ended in December after incurring
losses for four of the previous five quarters as demand for disk
drives fell. The projections also point to stronger shipments in
the company's third fiscal quarter.
''The demand for the first month was outstanding,'' said
Stears, who heads Seagate's Asia Pacific operations. ''With that,
we believe the strength of the recovery will continue.''
He didn't give specific figures.
Regain Market Share
Seagate also hopes to regain market share it lost to IBM and
Maxtor last year with its new business strategy. Seagate lost 2.6
percentage points of market share to 20.5 percent, according to
market researcher TrendFOCUS. IBM's share rose 1.4 percentage
points to 12.5 percent while Maxtor doubled its share to 11.6
percent.
''The time-to-market leader will receive the lion's share of
the market,'' Stears said. ''And we expect it to be Seagate.''
About a week earlier, Stephen Luczo, Seagate's president and
chief executive said he expects the company's business to grow
because economic conditions stabilized in the past six months.
Seagate is one of Singapore's biggest employers, accounting
for about 2 percent of the island state's gross domestic product.
It's also a major employer in Malaysia, Thailand and China. Asia
accounts for 15 percent of Seagate's revenue. |
