Data GeneralCorp’s decision to phase out manufacturing in Singapore, where it has chipmaking and computer manufacturing plants (CI No 970), comes just a few months after the company invested $100m in a new factory and moved its regional headquarters from Hong Kong to the island state. The migration won the Westboro minimaker massive financial help with its factory and a 10-year tax holiday, but falling sales have left the plant with little to do. It has even been using its surface mount production lines to take in other companies’ washing and stuffing their boards under subcontract in a desperate effort to keep the plant open and the workforce busy. Data General rationalises the move to close down the operations by pointing out that each generation of equipment necessitates a lower manufacturing content than the one it replaces. But down the road from unhappy Data General Singapore, an ebullient Compaq is expanding its manufacturing plant and setting up a regional sales, marketing, support and distribution centre. The company says it has already shipped double the number of circuit boards this year as in the whole of last year, and is spending UKP21m to set up two surface-mount printed circuit board lines by year-end.
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