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