Yamaha may reduce RI staff

Yamaha may reduce RI staff

TOKYO (Reuters): Yamaha Motor Co. Ltd. is considering firing 700 part-time employees at its Indonesian unit if market conditions deteriorate, Yamaha president Takehiko Hasegawa told a news conference yesterday.

He added that the company will cut shipments of motorcycle kits to the unit to 300,000 in calendar 1998 from 500,000 a year earlier.

The company will also cut shipments of motorcycle kits to its Thai unit to 100,000 from 140,000, he said.

Yamaha Motor, the world's second-biggest motorcycle maker, expects overall motorcycle demand in Asia to fall 15 percent in 1998 from a year earlier. It expects global motorcycle demand to fall slightly to 18 million units in 1998 from 18.5 million in 1997, Hasegawa said.

Yamaha is now restraining investment in its Indonesian and Thai units due to economic problems there, he said.