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

To: William Epstein who wrote (5671)	9/15/1998 10:39:00 AM
From: DJBEINO	Respond to of 7841

Seagate May Sell Philippines Disk Drive Plant Amid Slump Bloomberg News September 15, 1998, 1:56 a.m. PT Seagate May Sell Philippines Disk Drive Plant Amid Slump Singapore, Sept. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Seagate Technology Inc., the world's No. 1 maker of computer disk drives, may sell an unused plant it built for US$70 million in the Philippines last year, a senior company official said. ''We have decided not to continue our operations in the Philippines,'' said Joel Stead, Seagate's senior vice president of international sales operations. ''We believe there's real efficiency in other facilities we've got in Asia, particularly in Thailand and Malaysia.'' Last week, Seagate said that it was putting on hold its plans for the Cebu plant, which would have employed 1,100 workers. The move comes amid a global slump in the disk drive industry, which has been hit by weaker-than-expected demand for computers. A price-cutting war among the top disk drive makers pushed Seagate into a loss last year. Stead declined to say if a charge would be taken for the Philippines plant. Still, Seagate remains committed to its investments in Asia, which contribute as much as 17 percent to its revenue, he said. Stronger growth in markets such as India, China and Taiwan has offset declines in Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines, Stead said. ''Other people claim Asia's a drag on their revenue,'' he said. ''But Asia's not a drag on our performance.'' Stead said he expects more mergers in the disk drive industry in the next year or two, leaving Seagate, International Business Machines Corp. and Fujitsu Ltd. as the top players. At present, Quantum Corp. and Western Digital Corp. are Seagate's closest competitors in terms of worldwide market share.