Seagate Plans $100 Mln Thai Plant Expansion, Gets Tax Breaks
Bangkok, Aug. 27 (Bloomberg) -- Seagate Technology Inc., the world's largest independent maker of computer disk drives, plans to invest about $100 million to expand four plants in Thailand, for which the government said it will provide tax concessions.
The expansion plan, announced this week by Thailand's Board of Investment, comes as the Scotts Valley, California-based company said it will eliminate 1,600 jobs at four plants in Singapore to cut costs.
Seagate is already Thailand's largest private employer with a staff of 33,000. The firm didn't say in its application how many employees it planned to add at the four plants, two in suburbs of Bangkok and two in nearby provinces. Its workforce in Thailand comprises half its staff in Asia. ''They are going to make complete drives again, rather than just parts,'' said Chackchai Panichapat, deputy secretary-general of Thailand's Board of Investment. ''There is a change of strategy, with more value-added production here.''
About 80 percent of production will be for export, the board's report said. Seagate officials in Thailand refused to comment on the company's investment plans.
The Board of Investment, chaired by Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai, can grant income tax waivers of up to eight years, as well as duty waivers on imported materials. The board's report gave no details of the incentives granted to Seagate.
Seagate and other disk drive makers have been struggling to cut costs to maintain or expand their market shares as prices for personal computers fall.
Earlier this month, rival Western Digital Corp., the No. 3 maker of computer disk drives, said it would cut 2,500 jobs in Singapore, or 60 percent of its workforce there, as it moves manufacturing north of the border to Malaysia. |
