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Hitachi close to B100bn in exports |
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Hitachi Global Storage Technologies, one of Thailand's top three makers and exporters of hard disk drives (HDD), expects exports to reach 100 billion baht this year after it completes a major capacity expansion. Since 2004, the company has spent $200 million increasing its annual production output in Thailand to 60 million drives by 2008. The expansion would be completed in the fourth quarter. All of the output would be exported, said Nakorn Tangsujaritpun, deputy managing director of Hitachi GST (Thailand). In 2008, the company expects to invest another one billion baht to increase manufacturing capacity, develop human resources and improve production efficiency with new technology, especially in perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR), Mr Nakorn said. ''The hard-drive business is changing all the time due to continuous technological development,'' he said. ''The trend from the previous years suggests that business will grow continuously and still have much room for its expansion.'' Hitachi GST manufacturers a wide range of drives in Thailand, including the 2.5-inch Travelstar for notebook computers, consumer and automotive applications and the 3.5-inch Deskstar for PCs, consumer electronics and enterprise applications. Hitachi GST is currently the world leader in the 2.5-inch segment, Mr Nakorn said. Established in 1997, Hitachi GST's manufacturing plant is in Prachin Buri with almost 10,000 employees. Since Hitachi acquired IBM's HDD business in 2003, Thailand has become its largest production location. ''We still need many more employees,'' said Mr Nakorn. The company also has a contracted drive maker, Union Technology Co, which is located in Si Racha, Chon Buri and has 5,500 employees. The overall capacity of Hitachi GST has increased by 110% since 2003. Cumulative shipments from the Thai operations reached 300 million units in December last year, he said. ''Shipments from Thailand have increased every year. This will continue until 2010,'' Mr Nakorn said without elaborating. |
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Bangkok Post, 03.03.2008 |
