Photo Engineer said:Yep, Fuji is in bigger trouble than anyone imagines Sandy. A Fuji manager quoted in today's Rochester D&C states that he had underestimated the drop in film sales in 2005 by quite a bit. Sounds just like I heard from EK management.
In addition, EK announced that it had overestimated its loss by about 10% - 20% and was reducing the loss in a new statement.
Agfa auctioned off their entire coating facility in the US, even before it got fully operational.
PE
t_nunn said:Neopan ACROS is out of stock (or down to their last few rolls) of their 120 film at the places I've checked. I hope this is just the result of panic buying. ACROS is my favorite film.
sanking said:Ron,
What becomes of all this equipment, coating machines for example, when it is auctioned off? Are there are industrial uses for it or does it just go to scrap.
Just wondering, for example, what happened to the coating machines Kodak used to coat the Dye Transfer matrix film? Some enterprising sould could easily have adapted them for coating carbon tissue.
Sandy
sanking said:Fuji announced yesterday that because of loss of market to digital it was stopping manufacture 35mm film in its Greenwood, South Carolina plant, and that some 200 people who worked at the plant would be laid off.
Sandy
waynecrider said:It sounds more and more like I'll need to start stashing away film, not that all of it is going away, but that some of what I like may disappear. How many of you use a deep freezer compared to a refrigerator freezer? Is 10 to 20 below F too cold?
Satinsnow said:Hi Wayne,
I do, I bought a new 24 cubic foot freezer a couple of months ago, and it now has about 1000 rolls of NPS, 500 Rolls of Velvia 50 250 Rolls of E100VS and several thousands of rolls of E6 120 and 220 film in it, in additon to several thousands of sheet film that I like to shoot
My freezer is set about 0 degrees
Dave
sanderx1 said:http://www.indexjournal.com/news/20060201a_n.html is a fairly throughout take on this. Really, if sales are going down it makes sense to make it where most of it is made - which would be Japan.
sanking said:Perhaps, but that Fuji plant was (is) a model of efficiency. Very modern, having been constructed in 1988 as I recall, and designed to get maximum productivity with a minimum amount of labor. I visited it once with a group of faculty from Clemson University and the interior was like three or four football fields in size and no more than 10-15 workers in sight. And labor in South Carolina is not all that expensive. If Fuji can not make a go with making the film at this plant, doubt they can do so in Japan where labor most likely costs more.
Sandy
sanderx1 said:Uhh.. come on - go to say B&H and look at their prices of imported vs USA film. At the difference, I seriously don't understand why any 35mm film was made in the US at all...
sanderx1 said:http://www.indexjournal.com/news/20060201a_n.html is a fairly throughout take on this. Really, if sales are going down it makes sense to make it where most of it is made - which would be Japan.
Photo Engineer said:Labor in Japan is incredibly cheap compared to the USA, but expensive compared to China and other Asian countries.
That is one reason why Fuji wanted to build in China.
PE
sanking said:Ron,
So why is it that Fuji decided to build such a large compex in South Carolina?
Or why did BMW put a huge auto manufacturing plant near Greer, SC.?
The plain fact of the matter is that labor is cheaper in South Carolina than it is in many parts of Japan and Germany.
What else but cheaper labor could explain the huge Nissan plant north of Jackson, Mississippi, or the Mercedes plant in Alabama?
Sandy
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