Disk-drive makers Seagate, WD ‘to close Penang plants’

Report says about 3,000 jobs to be lost as disk-drive maker quits production after 28 years in Bayan Lepas

PETALING JAYA: Disk drive makers Seagate and Western Digital are moving production to Thailand, with an expected loss of 3,000 jobs in Penang, according to press reports.

Seagate’s plant in Bayan Lepas will be sold, after 28 years, as well as a 16.4 hectare plot of land in Batu Kawan which it had announced two years ago as the site for its expansion.

The closure is a result of weak demand and changes in technology, and comes about a decade after the company laid off about 4,000 people in Penang.

Western Digital is expected to lay off 400 Malaysian staff and 800 foreign workers in its Penang plant, according to Business Times, quoted NST Online.

Seagate is also leaving Negeri Sembilan but will retain operations in Senai, Johor, the report said. It quoted a statement from US-based Seagate Technologies as confirming the end of manufacturing in Malaysia and its move to Thailand.

Western Digital is expected to wind down operations from August.

Earlier in the week, Seagate had said in a quarterly financial announcement that it would cut 6,500 jobs by the end of the next fiscal year, or roughly 14 per cent of its 52,000-strong global workforce.

Seagate’s main manufacturing facilities are in Malaysia and China.