THE strength of the yen, especially against the South Korean won, has helped spatter Japanese electronics companies with red ink in recent years. Now it has spilled blood. On February 27th Elpida, a Japanese maker of DRAM memory chips, filed the biggest bankruptcy claim of any Japanese manufacturer since the second world war. The main beneficiary of its demise was South Korea's Samsung.
No one would accuse Samsung of thrashing Elpida on currency advantages alone. The electronics giant is nimbler and bolder than many of its Japanese competitors. But the yen/won exchange rate has worked spectacularly in South Korean exporters' favour since the start of the global financial crisis in mid-2008. (The Economist)
THE strength of the yen, especially against the South Korean won, has helped spatter Japanese electronics companies with red ink in recent years. Now it has spilled blood. On February 27th Elpida, a Japanese maker of DRAM memory chips, filed the biggest bankruptcy claim of any Japanese manufacturer since the second world war. The main beneficiary of its demise was South Korea's Samsung.
No one would accuse Samsung of thrashing Elpida on currency advantages alone. The electronics giant is nimbler and bolder than many of its Japanese competitors. But the yen/won exchange rate has worked spectacularly in South Korean exporters' favour since the start of the global financial crisis in mid-2008. (The Economist)