Seagate Technology said it will invest 1.3 billion Singapore dollars (US$819 million; €644 million) to build a third recording-disk plant in Singapore.

The plant, located near Seagate's two other plants in the northern part of the island, will initially hire 1,000 staff when it is opened in 2008, Seagate Senior Vice President Jerry Glembocki said.

It will employ up to 3,000 people when it reaches full capacity in about four years of operation, depending on demand, Glembocki said.

The plant will produce recording media disks, which are key components of hard disk drives.

Glembocki didn't say how many recording disks would be produced in the plant each year, nor did he comment on how the capacity of the new plant would compare to its other two plants. However, the company statement said the Singapore operations will soon supply 80 percent of Seagate's global requirement of recording disks.

It has other recording-disk plants in California and Northern Ireland.

Glembocki said the company's own research shows that demand for data storage space continues to grow faster than the amount of hard disks produced every year.

Seagate has 8,800 employees in Singapore, including 100 staff from former rival Maxtor. Seagate bought Maxtor in May. After the purchase, Seagate boosted its global market share of the hard disk drive market to around 40 percent from 30 percent.

By: DocMemory
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