***NEC to Sell Eight Overseas Factories
(January 8)
According to the WSJ Interactive, NEC, as part of a broader
restructuring, is planning to sell at least eight overseas
factories over the next two years. The Japanese maker of computer
and communications equipment hasn't reached agreements to sell
the factories, which make cell phones and other communications
gear. Potential buyers for the factories include manufacturers
that make electronics under contract with other companies.
The NEC plants under consideration for sale are in Australia,
Mexico, Portugal, Vietnam, Thailand and the Philippines. The
sales would further a wide-ranging restructuring at NEC, which
over the past year has sold three overseas factories.
The talks come as a host of other Japanese manufacturers, pressed
by falling profits and steep competition from Taiwan and South
Korea, are searching for new ways to squeeze cash from their vast
manufacturing facilities. Sony, in October said it is selling a
plant north of Tokyo that makes car electronics to Solectron for
an undisclosed sum.
NEC wants to consign manufacturing of low-profit and commodity
products to other makers while it concentrates on high-valued
products, such as semiconductors and next-generation cellular-
phone technology.
Wave Issue 0102 1/9/01 Article 6-02