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Technology Stocks : Seagate Technology -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Stitch who wrote (4638)	2/3/1998 2:56:00 PM
From: Kurthend	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 7841

I have seen your posts on the Asian thread and the various dd threads. Thought you wanted to read this from the WSJ which came out today. It sounds positive for SEG in the next 6+ months (Short term may still be a little rough). Also seems to confirm info I and everyone else seems to have concerning the dd industry improving the last half of calender year 98. Seagate Tech Sees Further Price Drops; To Maintain Mkt Share SINGAPORE (Dow Jones)--Major disk drive maker Seagate Technology Inc. (SEG) expects the current restructuring within the company to stem the company's market share decline and help battle the 15-20% price drop in the last quarter. Joel Stead, the company's vice president for international operations, told Dow Jones Newswires Tuesday that it was possible that the current problem of overcapacity facing the disk drive industry could lead to a further 15-20% price decline in the current quarter. But following the recent retrenchment of workers in its Singapore, Malaysian and Thailand plants, the company expects to focus on products which have missed their production and shipment schedules. He said the products it is shipping this quarter should become mainstream drives in desktop and high-end computers by mid-1998. By then, the disk drive industry should be ready to recover, he said. The company currently commands about 40% market share in the high-end segment. Seagate, which is the biggest producer of disk drives in the world, cut its Singapore work force by 10% last month. The Singapore plant, its flagship production facility, focuses mainly on the high-end drives. As reported, earlier Tuesday the company also laid off 900 workers in Thailand as part of a global restructuring program. Stead said the demand for disk drives for the desktop market will quickly migrate to 4 gigabytes by mid-1998, up from current capacity of about 2.5 gigbytes. In the high-end segment, mainstream demand should be around 9 gigabytes by the middle of the year, up from 4 gigabytes now. He said Seagate has restructured its manufacturing plants, most of which are based in Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand, and they will now ramp up volumes in these new products. The recent signs of stability in financial markets in the region should give the disk drive market in Asia some respite, he said. Previously, the sharp fall in southeast Asian currencies drove Seagate customers to cut their orders. But demand from countries like Japan, China and India continue to be very strong, he said. -Joseph Rajendran; 65 421 4800.