Fuji Xerox's forecast about the printing market

Japan's Fuji Xerox said it would take several years for global office equipment demand to return to levels seen before the financial crisis. Fuji Xerox, a copier and printer joint venture between Fujifilm Holdings and Xerox Corp, announced it plans to focus on growth areas such as digital commercial printing operations to drive sales. Digital commercial printers are used to produce such documents as product manuals and direct mail quickly and in large volume, and are a fast-growing segment of the printer market.

Asked when the ailing printing market would get back into positive trends, Fuji Xerox President Tadahito Yamamoto said: "My answer is still uncertain. In Japan and the United States and Europe it's still difficult to tell. I think it will take another two to three years". Yamamoto said Fuji Xerox aims to double its revenues from digital commercial printing operations and document-related by the year to March 2014.

Source: tonernews.com

Key words: Fuji Xerox, market, crisis

HP is about to suspend production in Kiryat Gat, Israel

HP is expected to shut down a number of wide digital printer production lines at the HP Indigo plant for one to three months. There is concern that the shut-down will persist, resulting in layoffs. HP has about 5,000 employees in Israel.

The economic crisis has hit the digital printer industry hard. In Israel, a number of companies in the industry are streamlining, including Kodak Israel Ltd. which fired 250 employees and moved one of its production lines to China.

HP's printer and imaging division saw a 20% drop in sales in the fourth fiscal quarter, which ended in January 2009, compared with the corresponding quarter, to $6 billion. Sales of digital printers fell 33%, and sales of commercial printers fell 40%. With results like these, HP has launched drastic cost-cutting measures.

HP Indigo is based on Indigo NV, which HP acquired in 2002 for $720 million. HP Indigo has 1,500 employees at two plants in Kiryat Gat, which manufacture digital printers and ink, and at its R&D center in the Ness Ziona Science Park.

The HP Indigo printer plant has 600-700 employees. The ink plant, set up in 2004 at an investment of $100 million, is smaller, with tens of employees. There could be mass layoffs if the halt in production is prolonged.

HP Indigo denies that it is contemplating layoffs. It said in response, "HP Indigo has no plans to lay off employees at this stage. The company, like every responsible company in the economy, adjusts its production to the current market conditions."

Source: www.globes-online.com

Key words: HP, Israel, layoff, printers, factory

Oce’s profits tumble to as low as -98 %

Dutch printer maker Oce informed last week its earnings plunged 98 percent in the fourth quarter, as business slowed abruptly in the conditions of the global economic downturn.

Oce, a major maker of printing systems for professional printers, was the first Dutch blue chip company to report quarterly earnings in what is expected to be a grim earnings season. Net profit was EUR700,000, down from EUR36.1 million in the same period IN 2007. Sales were down 4.3 percent to EUR802 million. The company's Chief Executive Rokus van Iperen said the company's business was "severely" affected by fallout from the financial crisis.

To cut costs, Oce will "seek partnerships" and try to outsource more of its sales to third parties, Van Iperen said. Oce will also try to generate extra cash by selling real estate, reducing inventories and payments due from customers.

Source: Google News

Key words: Oce, printers, crisis

Dell put Ireland to shock: sales of PCs fall causing job cuts

The news put Ireland to shock: Dell announced the company would relocate its computer production from Ireland to Poland. The location of new computer-assembling facility will be the Polish city of Lodz.

The closing of the Dell plant in Ireland is more than just a regular close-up. By operating the plant in the country Dell was one of the largest exporters. Dell’s plant was the trendsetter for further economic growth of Ireland in the 90-ies. It contributed highly to transformation into a new “tiger”. Now that the news is out, over 1900 jobs will be erased and the high-technology image of Ireland will suffer immensely.

Dell is following the world’s decline in demand for PCs. Another computer manufacturer, the Chinese Lenovo, which had surprised the world a couple of years ago by buying the computer division of IBM, announced it would cut 2500 jobs, 11% of its work effectives.

No matter how shocking the news could seem, it did not come as pure surprise to industry experts. Lenovo as well as Dell face strong declines for their products at the global scale. Sales of PCs were greatly affected by the financial crisis. So, their pumped inventories prompt at diminishing production, which can be reached either by job cuts or relocation and passing to services of outsourcing.

According to forecasts of research agencies, IDC in this case, the global demand for PCs will fall by 1.3% in 2009. The decrease will be very significant in North America – 13.7% and Western Europe – 5.8%. The global demand for servers will shrink by 1.6%.

Another factor that made PC manufacturers revise their production plans is the increasing interest to laptops and notebooks. Gartner informs that the Taiwan Acer outstaged HP in sales of small computers in Europe.

Semiconductors suffer as well

Following its main customers, manufacturers of semiconductors do every effort to save in the environment of a worsening economy. Intel recognized its sales plans would not be reached in 2009. Its turnover promises to fall by 23% as compared in 2008.

The Japanese TDK recurred to job cuts – 8000 people were laid off and its four plants were shut down. In 2008 the market of semiconductors shrank by 4% and will shrink by 16% in 2009, says Gartner.

Key words: Lenovo, Dell, job cuts, crisis, semiconductors