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28-09-2006, 06:03 PM
Seagate Invests S$1.3 Billion in New Singapore Plant (Update4)
By Angus Whitley
Sept. 28 (Bloomberg) -- Seagate Technology, the world's largest maker of computer disk drives, plans to invest S$1.3 billion ($819 million) and hire as many as 3,000 workers at a new plant in Singapore to meet demand for data-storage devices.
The factory, the world's largest of its kind, will start production in the first half of 2008, Jerry Glembocki, a senior vice president at Cayman Islands-based Seagate, said in Singapore today. The plant will make components similar to compact discs that store data in hard-disk drives.
Demand for space to store digital photographs and videos is driving growth in the $28 billion hard-disk drive market. The new plant will bolster Singapore's electronics industry, which has lost manufacturing jobs to lower-cost countries such as China.
``On the disk-media side, it's certainly one area where we have seen growth in Singapore,'' said Song Seng Wun, a regional economist at CIMB GK Research Pte. in Singapore. ``It's all about the value-added chain, and disk media is less intensive than, say, putting together a disk drive, so it does make sense for tech industries to still consider Singapore.''
Revenue in the data storage industry is expanding about 20 percent a year, Glembocki told reporters. Seagate is boosting manufacturing capacity as the industry struggles to meet demand from consumers and businesses for space to store their data and documents, he said.
Seagate, which operates out of Scotts Valley, California, has moved some factories from Singapore to China and Thailand in the past decade. Song estimates the investment amount is more than a quarter the average S$4.5 billion in electronics investments Singapore got in each of the past six years.
`Strategic Investments'
``We will continue to make strategic investments in Singapore,'' Bill Watkins, Seagate's chief executive officer, said in a statement.
The factory, in the Woodlands area in the north of Singapore, will initially need 1,000 workers, Seagate said. Together with existing facilities in Woodlands, it will supply about 80 percent of Seagate's requirement for so-called recording media used in computers, game consoles and digital video recorders.
The plant will be completed two years after production starts, Glembocki said. The factory, which will have a maximum capacity of 180 million units a year, is Seagate's third in Singapore to make storage components. The company shipped 119 million disk drives last fiscal year.
The global hard-disk drive industry is estimated to expand to $40 billion in 2009, Singapore's Minister for Trade and Industry Lim Hng Kiang said in a speech at the factory opening, citing figures from research company IDC.
Maxtor Acquisition
Shares of Seagate rose 2.5 percent to $23.05 yesterday in New York. They have gained 15 percent this year.
Seagate agreed to buy Maxtor Corp. in December 2005 for $1.9 billion, removing its closest rival and bolstering its share of the hard-disk drive market. In May, Seagate said it would eliminate about 6,400 jobs, or half of all positions at Milpitas, California-based Maxtor, after the purchase.
About 2,000 workers have been cut in Singapore, Seagate said on Aug. 11. At that time, the company said it may hire some of the former Maxtor employees at a new plant.
To contact the reporter on this story: Angus Whitley in Singapore at awhitley1@bloomberg.net .
Last Updated: September 28, 2006 01:34 EDT
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=au1qoWwyjHzE&refer=home#
By Angus Whitley
Sept. 28 (Bloomberg) -- Seagate Technology, the world's largest maker of computer disk drives, plans to invest S$1.3 billion ($819 million) and hire as many as 3,000 workers at a new plant in Singapore to meet demand for data-storage devices.
The factory, the world's largest of its kind, will start production in the first half of 2008, Jerry Glembocki, a senior vice president at Cayman Islands-based Seagate, said in Singapore today. The plant will make components similar to compact discs that store data in hard-disk drives.
Demand for space to store digital photographs and videos is driving growth in the $28 billion hard-disk drive market. The new plant will bolster Singapore's electronics industry, which has lost manufacturing jobs to lower-cost countries such as China.
``On the disk-media side, it's certainly one area where we have seen growth in Singapore,'' said Song Seng Wun, a regional economist at CIMB GK Research Pte. in Singapore. ``It's all about the value-added chain, and disk media is less intensive than, say, putting together a disk drive, so it does make sense for tech industries to still consider Singapore.''
Revenue in the data storage industry is expanding about 20 percent a year, Glembocki told reporters. Seagate is boosting manufacturing capacity as the industry struggles to meet demand from consumers and businesses for space to store their data and documents, he said.
Seagate, which operates out of Scotts Valley, California, has moved some factories from Singapore to China and Thailand in the past decade. Song estimates the investment amount is more than a quarter the average S$4.5 billion in electronics investments Singapore got in each of the past six years.
`Strategic Investments'
``We will continue to make strategic investments in Singapore,'' Bill Watkins, Seagate's chief executive officer, said in a statement.
The factory, in the Woodlands area in the north of Singapore, will initially need 1,000 workers, Seagate said. Together with existing facilities in Woodlands, it will supply about 80 percent of Seagate's requirement for so-called recording media used in computers, game consoles and digital video recorders.
The plant will be completed two years after production starts, Glembocki said. The factory, which will have a maximum capacity of 180 million units a year, is Seagate's third in Singapore to make storage components. The company shipped 119 million disk drives last fiscal year.
The global hard-disk drive industry is estimated to expand to $40 billion in 2009, Singapore's Minister for Trade and Industry Lim Hng Kiang said in a speech at the factory opening, citing figures from research company IDC.
Maxtor Acquisition
Shares of Seagate rose 2.5 percent to $23.05 yesterday in New York. They have gained 15 percent this year.
Seagate agreed to buy Maxtor Corp. in December 2005 for $1.9 billion, removing its closest rival and bolstering its share of the hard-disk drive market. In May, Seagate said it would eliminate about 6,400 jobs, or half of all positions at Milpitas, California-based Maxtor, after the purchase.
About 2,000 workers have been cut in Singapore, Seagate said on Aug. 11. At that time, the company said it may hire some of the former Maxtor employees at a new plant.
To contact the reporter on this story: Angus Whitley in Singapore at awhitley1@bloomberg.net .
Last Updated: September 28, 2006 01:34 EDT
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=au1qoWwyjHzE&refer=home#