Toshiba, Matsushita to make HDDs in RI

Toshiba, Matsushita to make HDDs in RI

TOKYO: Toshiba Corp. and Matsushita Kotobuki Electronics
Industries Ltd. will cooperate in the production of 1.8-inch and
2.5-inch hard disk drives, the companies said Tuesday.

Under the agreement, Matsushita Kotobuki will make the small
HDDs for Toshiba at its Indonesian unit, PT Matsushita Kotobuki
Electronics Peripherals Indonesia. Matsushita Kotobuki is a unit
of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co..

The move reflects growing demand for small HDDs used in
portable computers, car navigation systems and mobile audiovisual
products - all of which require high-capacity storage devices in
a compact design, the companies said.

Production of 1.8-inch HDDs will begin in April, while output
of 2.5-inch HDDs is scheduled to start in the latter half of this
year.

All manufactured products will be sold under the Toshiba
brand, the companies said. -- Dow Jones

SIA to study no-frills airlines

SINGAPORE: Singapore Airlines (SIA) will conduct a "detailed
study" on the prospects of a no-frills airlines to be based in
the northern Thai city of Chiang Mai, the Singapore government
said Tuesday.

The proposed budget carrier was discussed by Singapore Prime
Minister Goh Chok Tong and Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra
during an informal summit in Phuket earlier this month, Singapore
Transport Minister Teo Cheow Tong said.

"We have kept SIA informed about what happened (at the
summit)," Yeo told reporters on the sidelines of a maritime
conference here. "They will be conducting a detailed study in
Thailand," he added.

Asked if the proposed discount carrier was the initiative of
SIA or the Singapore government together with the Thai
government, Yeo said: "As PM Goh said this is called a commercial
project and therefore SIA will be driving it. It must be
commercially viable." -- AFP

Samsung to boost brandname in Malaysia

KUALA LUMPUR: Samsung Electronics said Tuesday it will boost
spending on a campaign to make its brandname "more friendly" in
Malaysia after posting record growth in the country last year.

The South Korean electronics giant aims to overtake Nokia as
the top selling mobile phone brand in Malaysia by next year and
improve its current fourth ranking in the television market
behind Sony, Panasonic and Toshiba, said its chief representative
to Malaysia, Kim Jeong Wook.

But the key obstacle to its lofty goals was a weak brandname,
he said.

The company will increase spending on marketing by more than
11 percent from last year to US$10 million in a campaign starting
in March. It posted sales of around $190 million in Malaysia last
year, with mobile phone sales contributing 65 percent. -- AFP

RWE plans to cut 10,000 jobs

FRANKFURT: German power giant RWE is planning a radical
restructuring under which activities would be sold and up to
10,000 jobs axed in its core operations in order to cut costs by
US$742 million each year, the monthly Manager Magazin reported
Tuesday.

The magazine said that a top-secret strategy paper, dubbed
"Project Duesseldorf", envisaged the downsizing of the overall
RWE group from 13 to six main companies.

The electricity and gas distribution divisions would, for
example, be combined along with the network operations to form a
single new unit, retail and distribution, the magazine said.

The power stations, brown coal mining and oil and gas
exploration activities would be merged under a single new unit,
upstream and generation. -- AFP

AT&T to get first network contract in China

BEIJING: AT&T Corp. and its Shanghai-based joint venture said
Tuesday they had received a contract to build a communications
network for a shipping company, in their first deal with a major
Chinese firm.

The deal is highly symbolic for AT&T, who was the first
foreign investor in China's telecommunications sector but has
been criticized for expending much effort to little gain. Despite
years of high-level lobbying, AT&T today has just a 25 percent
stake in the US$25 million data-services joint venture, Shanghai
Symphony Telecommunications Co.

Their joint deal with China Ocean Shipping (Group) Co., known
as COSCO, is a "multi-year, multimillion U.S. dollar contract,"
said Greg Brutus, a Hong Kong-based spokesman for AT&T, who
declined to give further financial details. -- Dow Jones