History 2003: Maxtor Adds China Plant

Maxtor had until now placed all of its eggs in the one basket, since all HDD production had been out of Singapore.

New CEO Paul Tufano had decided to spend $200 million over the next 5 years to build a new plant in Suzhou, China in order to transfer assembly of all HDDs save the high-end units, which will continue to be produced in Singapore.

The Chinese facility, to encompass some 800,000 square feet, should be completed by the 2H04.

As early as 1997, Hyundai Electronics had considered plans, ultimately abandoned, for a plant in Dalian, China, to complement Maxtor’s Singapore plant (at the time, Maxtor was a subsidiary).

The first industry manufacturing forays date back to 1991, by Microscience, then in 1992 by Conner Peripherals in Shenzhen. Great Wall of China also put together drives for IBM, BMI and Conner Technology. Currently, Seagate Technology has a factory in Wuxi, which dates to 1995, while Excelstor launched one of its own in Shenzhen in 2000. The new HGST manufactures its HDD components in Futian and Shenzhen.

This article is an abstract of news published on issue 182 on March 2003 from the former paper version of Computer Data Storage Newsletter.