WD adds staff as its export revenue grows

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WD adds staff as its export revenue grows

Headcount up 20% as shipments rise 10-15%

Published: 8/12/2009 at 12:00 AM

Newspaper section: Business

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US-based Western Digital (WD), the world's second-largest hard-disk drive maker (HDD), has increased its headcount in Thailand by more than 20% to 40,000 as it approaches healthy export revenue growth of 10-15% this year.

 

Shipments of Western Digital (Thailand) are on course to grow by 10-15% this year despite the slowdown early in the year as the global industry has recovered significantly from the recession, said Richard Thomas, vice-president for Asia operations.

 

Thailand, WD's largest manufacturing centre globally, shipped 70 million hard-disk drives last year to computer manufacturers including top brands in Asia. The company has two main operations in Navanakorn Industrial Estate, Pathum Thani, and Bang Pa-in in Ayutthaya.

 

"The HDD industry typically grows by an average of 8-11% per year. Anything in excess of the industry average is considered good growth as it is typically expanding market share," he said. "WD's growth this year should be better than the industry average."

 

The Thai unit now has 40,000 workers, out of 53,000 WD employs globally, as production has ramped up in response to rising demand.

 

"The industry has recovered well over the last two quarters and WD's business is pretty busy nowadays," said Mr Thomas, who is in charge of procurement, logistics and exports in the region.

 

The launch of netbooks last year and continuous growth in online social networking are the major drivers behind storage product demand, he said.

 

Global sales of the HDD industry are estimated at 560 million drives this year compared to 540 million in 2008. WD has a 25% share, close to its US rival Seagate Technology, which has 30.5%.

 

The two US companies have a combined market share of 78% in 2.5- and 3.5-inch drives globally, Mr Thomas said.

 

With 100 local suppliers, WD manufactures drives and components including head gimbal assembly (HGA), head-stack assembly (HSA) in Thailand. It imports media from a WD plant in Penang, Malaysia, to assemble here.

 

Mr Thomas said WD was considering a major expansion in Thailand. The US HDD maker earlier closed one of its two manufacturing buildings in Navanakorn when the industry was hard hit by the crisis.

 

"We are now running at full capacity. We will start to look at additional capacity and may have some more investment in current areas we occupy," he said but declined to elaborate on the details.

 

Thailand has an environment that favours WD's continued expansion, especially the availability of skilled labour and support from the government, he added.