Plant expansion: Hard drive media manufacturing expands in Singapore

By Control Engineering Staff October 10, 2006

Singapore —Increasing demand for recording media is driving continued expansion of manufacturing capabilities in Southeast Asia. Seagate Technology announced it will construct its third media plant in Singapore, responding to the growing need for disc drives and potentially creating 3,000 new jobs. The new facility will be built close to the company’s existing facilities at its Woodlands location. The combined operations will supply about 80% of Seagate’s total requirement of recording media, a critical component used in the assembly of its disc drives. Manufacturing is expected to start at the new plant by mid-2008.

“Singapore has been a key strategic site for Seagate, and today’s announcement essentially establishes the country as Seagate’s central media manufacturing hub,” said Bill Watkins, CEO. “We will continue to make strategic investments in Singapore by leveraging established infrastructure and tapping the pool of technological and human resources this island-nation has to offer.”

In 2005, Singapore accounted for a quarter of the world market share for disc media, according to Teo Ming Kian, chairman of the Singapore Economic Development Board , adding that Seagate’s investment into a third media plant will strengthen that position further. Seagate established its first recording media operations facility outside of North America at the Woodlands in 1996.

Seagate reports shipping 119 million disc drives in its past fiscal year and said the new facilities will make it the world’s largest producer of recording media in Singapore. The new three-story manufacturing block will feature a built-up area of about 54,000 sq m, housing new generation technologies including perpendicular recording capabilities.

Control Engineering Daily News Desk
Jeanine Katzel , senior editor