Seagate to shift production

Seagate to shift production

BANGKOK (AP): U.S. computer disk-drive maker Seagate Technology plans to shift part of its production from Singapore to Thailand over the next three years, Thai newspapers reported Monday.

The company plans to spend US$60 million to upgrade its two manufacturing plants in Thailand this year to assemble disk drives, The Nation newspaper said quoting Seagate's chief financial officer Charles Pope.

But the Bangkok Post newspaper suggested that Seagate will build a new factory in Thailand, saying construction is expected to begin once its factory in Singapore reaches full capacity.

It said the Singapore plant is now operating at 80 percent capacity.

Pope, who had made the comments to the two newspapers during a recent visit to Thailand, was not immediately available to confirm the two reports.

Seagate, the world's largest maker of hard disk drive, phased out disk assembly in Thailand in 1997, reducing its work force to 15,000 from 44,000 before 1997.