“Automakers aren’t the only ones halting production as inventories pile up. The consumer electronics industry is also coming to grips with rising stockpiles of unsold goods that are likely to result in price pressure and falling profit,” Olga Kharif reports for BusinessWeek.
“Recent evidence of growing inventories came Dec. 15, when SanDisk, a maker of memory cards and storage drives, said it will temporarily stop production at two Japanese plants for two weeks through Jan. 12. After that, the factories will resume work at 70% capacity. SanDisk hopes the cutbacks will help it whittle away at the piles of unsold devices in warehouses and on retailers’ shelves,” Kharif reports.
“PC makers are likely among the casualties… IDC this month cut its forecast for computer unit sales growth to 5% from 13.2%. Desktop and traditional notebook sales at such vendors as Dell and Hewlett-Packard may be especially hard-hit,” Kharif reports.
“Partly as a result of inventory buildup, annual sales of flat-panel TVs will decline for the first time in 2009, to $21.8 billion from $24.4 billion this year, according to researcher iSuppli… The pileup could pressure prices for much of next year, making it difficult for lesser-known brands to survive,” Kharif reports.
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Carl H.” for the heads up.]