This is not good, not good at all.

Over 3,000 job cuts likely as Seagate and Western Digital leave Penang.
 
The common technology affecting Seagate and Western Digital is that of hard disk manufacturing which is being obsoleted by flash drives without moving parts, smaller and faster although cost per gigabyte storage is much higher but the gap is closing. You don't see hard disks on hand held gadgets and smartphones. Even notebooks are opting for flash drives which are lighter and more durable due to no moving mechanical parts. On top of this the trend of storing personal data on clouds services like Google Drive and Dropbox is gaining popularity as they are accessible anywhere in the world where there's Internet connection.

Malaysia must no longer depend on FDI which invest in businesses relying on fast obsoleting technologies. We must seriously reintroduce food production on larger scales to create new jobs and sustainable employments beside secure self reliance.

 

 

Read full report HERE.

Over 3,000 job cuts likely as Seagate, Western Digital leave Penang

Read More : http://www.nst.com.my/news/2016/07/158437/over-3000-job-cuts-likely-seagate-western-digital-leave-penang

Over 3,000 job cuts likely as Seagate, Western Digital leave Penang

Read More : http://www.nst.com.my/news/2016/07/158437/over-3000-job-cuts-likely-seagate-western-digital-leave-penang

Malaysia is likely to experience job cuts in the wake of a move by two American investors who are pulling out a major portion of their operations here. Penang is set to be the largest casualty as hard disk maker Seagate Technology Plc and computer data storage firm Western Digital Corp (WD), said to be relocating the bulk of their operations to Thailand. Business Times has learnt that Seagate will exit from Penang and Negri Sembilan. The Penang facility is said to have over 3,000 Malaysian staff. The company is also said to be putting up its Bayan Lepas facility for sale, along with a 16.4ha land in Batu Kawan on mainland Penang where it had announced two years, of its expansion . WD meanwhile, is expected to lay off 400 Malaysian staff and 800 foreign workers from its Penang manufacturing site. “Seagate’s operations in Senai, Johor, will remain for now,” an industry source said. Sources also said WD will begin to ramp down its slider operations from August as it prepares to move to Thailand. Seagate is expected to wind up and transfer its operations to Korat in Thailand in the fourth quarter of next year. In a statement earlier this week, forecasting financials for its fiscal fourth quarter of this year (ended last month), Seagate had said it would be cutting 6,500 jobs by the end of the next fiscal year, which wouldbe roughly 14 per cent of its global workforce. Foreign media reports had stated that the newly announced job cuts will mainly affect employees involved in production. The company’s main manufacturing facilities are based in Malaysia and China, with some in the United States and the United Kingdom. Seagate’s investment history in Malaysia dates to 1988 and the largest layoff the company underwent in Penang was over a decade ago when some 4,000 people were laid off. The company has 52,000 people on its global payroll.

Read More : http://www.nst.com.my/news/2016/07/158437/over-3000-job-cuts-likely-seagate-western-digital-leave-penang

Malaysia is likely to experience job cuts in the wake of a move by two American investors who are pulling out a major portion of their operations here. Penang is set to be the largest casualty as hard disk maker Seagate Technology Plc and computer data storage firm Western Digital Corp (WD), said to be relocating the bulk of their operations to Thailand. Business Times has learnt that Seagate will exit from Penang and Negri Sembilan. The Penang facility is said to have over 3,000 Malaysian staff. The company is also said to be putting up its Bayan Lepas facility for sale, along with a 16.4ha land in Batu Kawan on mainland Penang where it had announced two years, of its expansion . WD meanwhile, is expected to lay off 400 Malaysian staff and 800 foreign workers from its Penang manufacturing site. “Seagate’s operations in Senai, Johor, will remain for now,” an industry source said. Sources also said WD will begin to ramp down its slider operations from August as it prepares to move to Thailand. Seagate is expected to wind up and transfer its operations to Korat in Thailand in the fourth quarter of next year. In a statement earlier this week, forecasting financials for its fiscal fourth quarter of this year (ended last month), Seagate had said it would be cutting 6,500 jobs by the end of the next fiscal year, which wouldbe roughly 14 per cent of its global workforce. Foreign media reports had stated that the newly announced job cuts will mainly affect employees involved in production. The company’s main manufacturing facilities are based in Malaysia and China, with some in the United States and the United Kingdom. Seagate’s investment history in Malaysia dates to 1988 and the largest layoff the company underwent in Penang was over a decade ago when some 4,000 people were laid off. The company has 52,000 people on its global payroll.

Read More : http://www.nst.com.my/news/2016/07/158437/over-3000-job-cuts-likely-seagate-western-digital-leave-penang

The economic invasion of China

Will Malaysia soon be renamed as "Chima", a satellite state of China?

First, we have the Chinese tourists from the mainland coming in droves for the past twenty years spending their renminbi on us. Then, came the selling off of chunk of shares to China in the form of JV in the EDRA power plants, Bandar Malaysia, the commercial port in Malacca and the high speed rail from KL to Singapore projects, each one going into the billions of ringgit.

At the rate things are going, it will not be surprising if someone come out with a cockamamie suggestion to renamed our country as "Chima" (a combination of China and Malaysia), or Cantonese for sesame seeds.

Then, we will have roads with names such as :
Jalan Xi JinPing.
Jalan Mao TseTung
Jalan Deng XioPing.
Jalan Zhou EnLai
Jalan Hu JinTao
Jalan Li Peng
Jalan Jiang Zemin
PutraJaya will be renamed the Great Hall of the People.

Unlikely?  Maybe but one can never know the way things are going on in PutraJaya.  Food for thought, though

OC Phang does not understand the meaning of bonds

Former Port Klang Authority (PKA) general manager OC Phang told the High Court here today she had no clue what bonds were or how they worked.

“I don’t understand bonds. I remember asking my project accountant what is this bonds thing. He also didn’t know,” she told Tun Dr Ling Liong Sik’s cheating trial.

Okay, for the less informed on the investment market, bond is nothing more than an asset which is part of a derivative instrument. Other assets include stocks, commodities, currencies, interest rates and market indexes.

A derivative instrument is a contract between two parties that specifies conditions—in particular, dates and the resulting values of the underlying variables—under which payments, or payoffs, are to be made between the parties.

To simplify it so that lay people like us can understand, this is how it goes.

Michael Wee is the proprietor of a pub in Damansara.

He realizes that virtually all of his customers are unemployed alcoholics and, as such, can no longer afford to patronize his bar.

To solve this problem, he comes up with a new marketing plan that allows his customers to drink now, but pay later.

Michael keeps track of the drinks consumed on a ledger (thereby granting the customers loans).

Word gets around about Michael's "drink now, pay later" marketing strategy and, as a result, increasing numbers of customers flood into Michael's pub. Soon he has the largest sales volume for any bar in the Klang Valley.

By providing his customers freedom from immediate payment demands, Michael gets no resistance when, at regular intervals, he substantially increases his prices for wine and beer, the most consumed beverages.

Consequently, Michael's gross sales volume increases massively.

A young and dynamic vice-president at the local bank recognizes that these customer debts constitute valuable future assets and increases Michael's borrowing limit.

He sees no reason for any undue concern because he has the debts of the unemployed alcoholics as collateral!

At the bank's corporate headquarters, expert traders figure a way to make huge commissions, and transform these customer loans into DRINKBONDS.

These "securities" then are bundled and traded on international securities markets.

Naive investors don't really understand that the securities being sold to them as "AAA Secured Bonds" really are debts of unemployed alcoholics. Nevertheless, the bond prices continuously climb - and the securities soon become the hottest-selling items for some of the nation's leading brokerage houses.

One day, even though the bond prices still are climbing, a risk manager at the original local bank decides that the time has come to demand payment on the debts incurred by the drinkers at Michael's pub. He so informs Michael.

Michael then demands payment from his alcoholic patrons. But, being unemployed alcoholics -- they cannot pay back their drinking debts.

Since Michael cannot fulfill her loan obligations he is forced into bankruptcy. The pub closes and Michael's 11 employees lose their jobs.

Overnight, DRINKBOND prices drop by 90%.

The collapsed bond asset value destroys the bank's liquidity and prevents it from issuing new loans, thus freezing credit and economic activity in the community.

The suppliers of Michael's pub had granted him generous payment extensions and had invested their firms' pension funds in the BOND securities.

They find they are now faced with having to write off his bad debt and with losing over 90% of the presumed value of the bonds.

His beer supplier also claims bankruptcy, closing the doors on a family business that had endured for three generations, his wine supplier is taken over by a competitor, who immediately closes the local plant and lays off 150 workers.

Fortunately though, the bank, the brokerage houses and their respective executives are saved and bailed out by a multibillion ringgit no-strings attached cash infusion from the government.

The funds required for this bailout are obtained by new taxes levied on employed, middle-class, nondrinkers who have never been in Michael's pub.

Now do you understand?