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Many U.S. Firms Expect Overseas Y2K Supply Glitches

01:31 a.m. Jul 16, 1999 Eastern

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - One in four of the biggest U.S. industrial firms expects supply problems from Asia, Latin America and Europe because of year 2000-related computer glitches, an informal survey released Thursday showed.

The poll of 96 members of the National Association of Manufacturers found those same firms expect to have other reliable sources of supply. Overall the poll found U.S. firms are confident they can weather any storm at the start of the new year.

All respondents said they will complete their so-called Y2K preparations by year's end, though 22 percent said they would not wind up until the fourth quarter, said NAM President Jerry Jasinowski.

``More significantly, the economies of the developing world are far behind the U.S. economy,'' he said in a statement. ''Given the connectedness of the global marketplace, these are serious concerns.''

Ed Yardeni, chief economist at Deutsche Morgan Grenfell who conducted the poll on his Web site, said, ``The biggest companies, while most prepared, are also the most vulnerable to the weaker links in the global supply chain.

While nearly half of those surveyed said they had no plan to build extra inventories of supplies and product by year-end, nearly two in five expected to have as much as four weeks of extra stock on hand.

More than one-third said their customers were asking them to increase stockpiles, the poll said. Sixty-five percent of respondents represented companies with 1,000 or more employees and 73 percent were said to operate globally.

Copyright 1999 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.

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-- Linkmeister (link@librarian.edu), July 16, 1999.

This is a two edged sword for companies trading internationally.

1.Obtaining supplies from overseas 2.Serving & getting paid by overseas customers.

-- Chris (griffen@globalnet.co.uk), July 16, 1999.

All respondents said they will complete their so-called Y2K preparations by year's end....

You bet they said that.

Ninety-six? Ninety-six is the sample size? A meaningless poll, then.

-- Lane Core Jr. (elcore@sgi.net), July 16, 1999.