Seagate sets up new S'pore plant

SINGAPORE--Storage giant Seagate Technology today unveiled plans to build a third media plant in the island-state to address growing global demand for hard-disc drives.

According to a media statement, the facility is expected to commence manufacturing activities by mid-2008 and could potentially create 3,000 new jobs when it operates at maximum production capacity.

Built close to Seagate's existing facilities in the northern part of Singapore, the plant--when completed--will be part of an infrastructure that supplies some 80 percent of the company's total requirement of recording media, a component used in disc drives.

Its first plant here was set up in 1996, and was the company's first Recording Media Operations (RMO) center to be established outside North America. The site is currently the company's largest media manufacturing facility, accounting for some 60 percent of Seagate's internal disc media output.

Teo Ming Kian, chairman of Singapore's Economic Development Board, said the country produced 25 percent of the world's disc media last year. "We are glad that Singapore remains a key location in the global strategy of the world's largest disc drives manufacturer," he said, in the statement.

According to Jerry Glembocki, Seagate's senior vice president of global recording heads and media operations, the company shipped 119 million disc drives in its last fiscal year, ended Jul. 31. "The new facilities will make Seagate in Singapore the world's single largest producer of recording media," he said.

The three-story manufacturing building will span an area of about 54,000 square meters and include Seagate's perpendicular recording capabilities. Piling works are scheduled to begin later this year.