History (1996): Seagate Puts $100 Million in Disk Substrates Plant

Seagate Technology plans to establish a $100 million recording media manufacturing facility in Limavady, Northern Ireland.

The 174,000 square foot plant will produce nickel-plated aluminum disk substrates for HDD drives.

Production is expected to begin in 1Q97.

Once it is operational, the plant will employ around 759 people and will produce approximately 56 million disk substrates per year.

The new facility, approximately 70 miles northwest from Belfast, will be Seagate’s second manufacturing location in Northern Ireland. In 1993, the company opened a 150,000 square foot thin-film head wafer fabrication plant currently employing 769 people in Springtown, 17 miles west of Limavady.

This article is an abstract of news published on the former paper version of Computer Data Storage Newsletter on issue 104, published on September 1996.

Note: The Seagate Limavady plant was shut down in 2008 resulting in a cut of 780 employees.