Western Digital cut 80 jobs at its Fremont, Calif., R&D facility as part of an overall effort to “align with the needs of our customers,” a company spokesman said. The 286,000-square-foot Fremont facility has 1,400 employees, the spokesman said. Western ended its fiscal 2012 ended June 29 with 103,111 employees. Western Digital has been restructuring its operations since acquiring Hitachi’s hard drive business earlier this year. Meanwhile, Western Digital incurred $235 million in losses in fiscal 2012 tied to the floods at its Thailand plant last October, the company said in its 10-K filing with the SEC. The losses were partly offset by $21 million in insurance recoveries and other cost reimbursements, resulting in a $214 million charge. Western Digital’s fiscal 2012 gross profit margin improved to 29.2 percent from 18.8 percent due largely to an increase in the average selling price (ASP) for hard drives to $62 from $45, the company said. The jump in ASPs was tied to the flooding, which created a drive shortage. The higher gross profit margin was offset by $91 million in costs on the sale on inventory stemming from its acquisition of Hitachi’s drive business. Western Digital had a slider fabrication and one-million-square-foot hard drive assembly plant in Bang Pa-In, Thailand, at the time of the flooding that accounted for 60 percent of its supply. The plant resumed production in March. Western Digital added hard drive manufacturing with the Hitachi purchase and has facilities in Shenzhen, China; Johor, Malaysia; and Chonburi, Thailand. Western Digital also has a hard drive recording head supply agreement with TDK’s SAE Magnetics that started in fiscal Q3 and runs through late 2013, the company said. Meanwhile, Western’s fiscal 2012 revenue rose 31 percent to $12.5 billion with Hitachi’s business contributing $3.1 billion sales, the company said. CE product and branded hard drives accounted for 19 percent of sales, down from 27 percent a year earlier. Net income improved to $1.6 billion from $726 million. Under a condition of the Hitachi purchase required by China’s Commerce Ministry, Western must keep Hitachi as an independent competitor for at least two years, Western said. Western is awaiting a decision by the Hennepin County, Minn., District Court on its request that a $630.4 million arbitration award against it be vacated, the company said. Western filed the petition with the district court in January. Rival Seagate was awarded $525 million along with $105.4 million in pre-award interest after a federal arbiter found Western misappropriated trade secrets. The award stemmed from claims brought in Hennepin County District Court against Western and one employee in October 2006. The suit switched to an arbitration case in 2007. Western doesn’t believe the arbiter’s award will be upheld and hasn’t recorded any liability for it other than the $25 million previously accrued, the company said.
Chances are slim that the Hitachi case on time limits for CBP protests will be taken up by the Supreme Court, say industry lawyers, and that is feeding a growing push for a legislative solution. In its decision, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit said the statutory two-year period for CBP to decide protests isn’t binding. But the remedy CAFC said is available to importers, accelerated disposition, could hurt smaller importers without the resources to challenge a deemed denial in court, industry lawyers said. Furthermore, CBP itself could face adverse consequences as more importers file for accelerated disposition. As a result, industry groups and customs brokers have begun pushing for amendments to the statute that would hold CBP to a time limit.
Hadopi, the French anti-piracy body created by the controversial law on creation and the Internet, is facing budget cuts amid growing criticism that it’s too expensive and ineffective. The institution, dedicated to distributing protected works and safeguarding digital rights, enforces a gradual response system in which suspected infringers first receive warning emails and letters, then can be prosecuted, and, finally, face Internet cut-off. Graduated response, or “three-strikes,” has been held out as a model that other countries could use against illegal downloading. Given Hadopi’s problems, it’s hard to believe other nations will pursue it, said digital rights activists. The body may survive in France, but under a new merged regulator akin to the Office of Communications in the U.K., said Hogan Lovells (Paris) media and communications lawyer Winston Maxwell.
Hadopi, the French anti-piracy body created by the controversial law on creation and the Internet, is facing budget cuts amid growing criticism that it’s too expensive and ineffective. The institution, dedicated to distributing protected works and safeguarding digital rights, enforces a gradual response system in which suspected infringers first receive warning emails and letters, then can be prosecuted, and, finally, face Internet cut-off. Graduated response, or “three-strikes,” has been held out as a model that other countries could use against illegal downloading. Given Hadopi’s problems, it’s hard to believe other nations will pursue it, said digital rights activists. The body may survive in France, but under a new merged regulator akin to the Office of Communications in the U.K., said Hogan Lovells (Paris) media and communications lawyer Winston Maxwell.
The Court of Appeals docketed Since Hardware (Guangzhou) Co. Ltd.’s appeal of the Court of International Trade’s rulings in Home Products International, Inc. v. United States. Since Hardware, defendant-intervenor in the case, filed the appeal on Aug. 10 concerning three CIT rulings in January, May, and June. At issue were surrogate values calculated for Since Hardware’s imports in the International Trade Administration’s 2007-08 administrative review of the antidumping duty order on floor-standing, metal-top ironing tables and certain parts thereof (A-570-888). CIT remanded the final results in January, and sustained the resulting remand determination in June.
Hitachi Home Electronics (America) wants the U.S. Supreme Court to step in and give teeth back to a 42-year-old federal statute that bars U.S. Customs and Border Protection from dragging its feet on import duty protests, it said in a July 30 petition. In 2003, Hitachi began importing plasma TVs into the U.S. produced at its factories in Mexico, the petition said. Hitachi paid 5 percent import duty on every set it shipped into the U.S., it said. It filed 10 protests with Customs claiming it should have been allowed to ship the sets duty-free under the North American Free Trade Agreement, it said. But Customs never acted on the protests, contrary to the Customs Courts Act of 1970, which places a “two-year limitation” on granting or denying such protests, it said. Hitachi filed and lost its suit in the Court of International Trade, and last October, the U.S. Appeals Court for the Federal Circuit ruled that notwithstanding the two-year limitation in the statute, “Customs may take as long as it wants to allow or deny protests,” the petition said. Problem is, “importers file tens of thousands of such protests annually, disputing the assessment and collection of billions of dollars in duty assessments and payments,” it said. Unless the Supreme Court intervenes, letting stand the appeals court ruling “will embolden Customs’ practice of ignoring the two-year limitation” in the statute and will “empower Customs to refuse to decide any protests, thus increasing uncertainty and costs to U.S. consumers and businesses,” it said. Only the Supreme Court “can remedy the harm caused by the Federal Circuit’s decision which affects all customs duty protests and, potentially, all imports into the United States,” it said. “This case, containing no factual disputes, offers this Court a clean opportunity to examine the federal question of paramount importance raised in this case.” Except for a few product categories like front projectors, Hitachi has largely abandoned the CE business in the U.S. and stopped shipping plasma TVs and other CE products here at least two years ago.
Hitachi Home Electronics (America) wants the U.S. Supreme Court to step in and strengthen a 42-year-old federal statute that bars CBP from dragging its feet on import duty protests, it said in a July 30 petition. Only the Supreme Court "can remedy the harm caused by the Federal Circuit's decision which affects all customs duty protests and, potentially, all imports into the United States," it said. "This case, containing no factual disputes, offers this Court a clean opportunity to examine the federal question of paramount importance raised in this case." Responses to Hitachi's Supreme Court request are due Aug. 31.
International Trade Today is providing readers with some of the top stories for July 30-Aug. 3 in case they were missed last week.
An Advisory Committee On Commercial Operations (COAC) subcommittee has renewed discussion of an AD/CV duty bond as a possible solution to the concerns surrounding the collection of AD/CV duties, said CBP in its Bond Subcommittee report. The report was among a number of documents released in preparation for the Aug. 15 COAC meeting. The CBP Bond report is (here).
The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit reversed part the Court of International Trade’s July 2010 dismissal of Ford’s request to liquidate and refund duties paid on ten reconciliation entries of imported Jaguar brand vehicles that Ford argued should have been deemed liquidated. In 2010, CIT had dismissed Ford’s claims for lack of subject matter jurisdiction and lack of controversy, and had declined to issue a judgment on other claims. CAFC reversed CIT’s jurisdiction ruling because CIT’s ruling was based on events that occurred after Ford filed its court complaint, reversed CIT’s dismissal for lack of controversy, and vacated CIT’s decision to dismiss other Ford claims.