History (1997): 20,000 Workers Planned in Seagate Head Plant in Thailand

Seagate Technology has inaugurated an extension of its existing head gimbal assembly operations in Nakhon Ratchasime (also known as Korat) in the North-East region of Thailand.

The 220,000-square-foot facility adds $50 million to the company’s $1 billion total accumulated investment in the country.

Seagate is already the largest private employer in Thailand with more than 37,500 people.

The Korat plant has to date brought 6,000 jobs and the company anticipates that employment at the facility will reach more than 20,000 by the end of 1999.

It presently builds some of the most technically-innovative recording heads, including those used in the 9GB Barracuda 9.

Other operations of Seagate Technology (Thailand) Ltd., set up in 1983, include disk drive in Chokchai, HGA in Teparuk, coil and printed circuit cable in Lad-Krabang, HSA in Wellgrow, motor and pole in Rangsit.

This article is an abstract of news published on the former paper version of Computer Data Storage Newsletter on issue 109, published on February 1997.