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Technology Stocks : Disk Drive Sector Discussion Forum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Z Analyzer who wrote (2530)	2/23/1998 8:00:00 PM
From: Mark Oliver	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 9256

<Not so . Manufacturing costs would drop. Notic eSeagate not cuttin g manufacturing in Thailand and Malaysia as opposed to the countries with stronger currencies. Also, companies go into China to have acess to that market for thier products.> I agree, I just question the timing. If China is poised on a currency breakdown, your investment could loose +40% in a day. Granted, long term players would not want to think about short term events (but +40%....) and they would use some hedging mechanism to cover some risk. Still, the whole market seems to warrant caution when investing in new production, or are we missing something? Is there really a good reason to establish state of the art wafer fabs in China now? I see no advantage for a head supplier to have access to China's market. Do you see a migration by any head manufacturer to 8 in wafers, and would this give anyone a significant cost advantage? I had read most of Read Rite's production was still on 4 inch wafers. Regards, Mark

To: Z Analyzer who wrote (2530)	2/23/1998 8:54:00 PM
From: Stitch	Respond to of 9256

Z, << Not so . Manufacturing costs would drop. Notic eSeagate not cuttin g manufacturing in Thailand and Malaysia as opposed to the countries with stronger currencies.>> Actually I must tell you that I think Seagate is slowly but surely demphasizing Malayisa and Thailand. There have been layoffs at both locations and a disk drive plant in Thailand has largely been idled in favor of production at newer facilities in China where, incidentally, labor is even cheaper. I expect to see little expansion in Malaysia, in favor of bringing up the Philippine plant, and same in Thailand, in favor of China. This, of course, is not an announced position and I surmise it on the basis of piecing together several bits of info. Best, Stitch