US hard-disk-drive producer expanding Thai operation to create 2,500 jobs

[webfact]

US hard-disk-drive producer expanding Thai operation to create 2,500 jobs
By The Nation

 

BANGKOK: -- US-based Weastern Digital Corp, a market leader in producing hard-disk drives, is expanding its investment in Thailand in a bid to boost its export value in the Kingdom to Bt35 billion this year.

 

The move will also create 2,500 jobs this year, the deputy secretary general of the Thailand Board of Investment (BoI), Ajarin Pattanapanchai, said on Monday.

 

The expansion involves the company's subsidiary, HGST (Thailand) Co Ltd.

 

Two global manufacturers of hard-disk drives are located in Thailand.

 

The other firm is Seagate Technolgy (Thailand). 

 

They received tax privileges from the BoI between 2007 to 2016 to produced products worth more than Bt30 billion. 

 

According to the privilege conditions, they have to invest in research and development worth more than Bt500 million.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/news/business/corporate/30317835

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2017-06-12

[dp4868]

Timothy Martin Leyden, chief executive officer of the California-based company, was quoted as saying that the operations in the next few years will be expanded through the introduction of new robots and machinery.

 

Not sure that is going to create any more jobs and they certainly won't want any Thai servicing of the robots and machinery otherwise they will never function properly.

[55Jay]

Mark 1 Mod 0 hard drives will soon be like 8-track cassette players.  The wonks are already working on the next "thing" beyond SSDs. 

Edited June 12, 2017 by 55Jay

[Muhendis]

3 hours ago, webfact said:

The move will also create 2,500 jobs this year, the deputy secretary general of the Thailand Board of Investment (BoI), Ajarin Pattanapanchai, said on Monday.

That'll please Trump for sure.

[BuaBS]

8 hours ago, 55Jay said:

Mark 1 Mod 0 hard drives will soon be like 8-track cassette players.  The wonks are already working on the next "thing" beyond SSDs. 

Soon ? For cheap mass storage , HDD's can't be beaten. New technologies are still coming to HDD's . And it's still a long wait for Intel's Optane , and similar memories . TLC SSD's look more and more like cr_p.

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/consumer-optane-enterprise-ssd-market,news-55931.html

Next month I'll be buying me some more TB's of external HDD.

I hope prices come down on 2 TB 2,5 inch notebook drives .

[petedk]

That'll please Trump for sure.

Exactly. Isn't that against his policy of keeping jobs in the USA?

[Sup Slick]

Just now, petedk said:

Exactly. Isn't that against his policy of keeping jobs in the USA?

 

 

 

4 hours ago, webfact said:

S-based Weastern Digital Corp, a market leader in producing hard-disk drives, is expanding its investment in Thailand in a bid to boost its export value in the Kingdom to Bt35 billion this year.

 

[wakeupplease]

I wonder what the import tax to the states is on these items, bet its not 300%

[Eric Loh]

That's quite a remarkable turnaround for WD from post 2011 flood when they almost want to pull out their production plants in Thailand. The then government was able to convince them to stay offering them incentives and flood mitigation dykes in the key production estates. HDD is key to Thailand economy and accounts for almost 40% of global HDD production. WD must have seen big potential to invest when they are so many challenges to HDD from other cheaper production bases in the world and newer technologies. 

[Techno Viking]

6 minutes ago, wakeupplease said:

I wonder what the import tax to the states is on these items, bet its not 300%

Why would it be ?

[wakeupplease]

10 minutes ago, Techno Viking said:

Why would it be ?

Try buying anything made in the states or almost any other country here and you will soon find out

 

Lets hope Trump sticks to his words

 

What does a bottle of wine carry as import tax here? You can buy the same bottle in the UK for less than a third of the price

 

Fair trade not around here

Edited June 12, 2017 by wakeupplease

[Techno Viking]

2 minutes ago, wakeupplease said:

Try buying anything made in the states or almost any other country here and you will soon find out

 

Lets hope Trump sticks to his words

 

Fair trade not around here

Ive purchased many items from the USA and imported them to Thailand and none have ever been subjected to 300% import taxes, I guess I dont import enough supercars !!

Edited June 12, 2017 by Techno Viking

[wakeupplease]

Just now, Techno Viking said:

Ive purchased many items from the USA and imported them Thailand and none have ever been subjected to 300% import taxes, I guess I dont import enough supercars !!

Brown envelopes then?

[Techno Viking]

Just now, wakeupplease said:

Brown envelopes then?

you are clueless and should not be posting here.

[wakeupplease]

4 minutes ago, Techno Viking said:

you are clueless and should not be posting here.

What ever you say that's fine with me

I see you did not comment on the import cost of a bottle of wine, but you did on supercars.

have a wonderful day

[peterpaintpot]

Regarding the price of wine here, I'm not sure what the import tax is, but the duty on alcohol in Thailand is not applied as by the majority countries in the world so that it is linked to alcohol content. The rot gut liquor that the local Thais drink has minimal tax, but wine is considered as luxury goods and is taxed very highly. You know it makes sense, it cuts down drunken driving and reduces liver damage. TIT.

 

When it comes to importing personal items; I often order music discs and dvd's from Amazon UK, therefore I do not pay UK Vat. Customs at BKK should request it by sending an invoice with the package to the local post office, they deliver the invoice to me and I go to the post office to pay Vat and Import duty. In 10 years I have had to pay these charges on less than 10% of deliveries.

 

Once I brought a new record deck back from the UK, at BKK I went through the Red channel, the customs officers were very busy reading their newspapers, before I could explain they looked up and told me to piss off. They were probably looking at the adverts for supercars. TIT.

 

I love living here but it could be so much better.

[surangw]

aren't hard drives being phases out in favor of ssd ?

 

[ericthai]

9 hours ago, dp4868 said:

they certainly won't want any Thai servicing of the robots and machinery otherwise they will never function properly.

with you comment one would wonder how all the hard drives being made in Thailand work? 

 

Some of you guys talk when you dont know anything. Just because you encounter uneducated and lazy Thais in tourist areas doesn't mean all Thais are uneducated and lazy.  I have worked in the industrial sector in Thailand for years and there are some very good workers, technicians and engineers in Thailand just as good as any other country I have worked in. 

[fruitman]

11 hours ago, 55Jay said:

Mark 1 Mod 0 hard drives will soon be like 8-track cassette players.  The wonks are already working on the next "thing" beyond SSDs. 

I don't understand why harddisks are still being built for notebooks and tablets. Also i don't understand why people would buy a slow SSD while they cost almost the same as a Samsung.

 

 

But what i don't understand is: Mr Trump had big words about creating jobs for Americans ONLY! And look now, 2500 new jobs for Thailand, why didn't they do this in the US?

[pegman]

2 hours ago, fruitman said:

I don't understand why harddisks are still being built for notebooks and tablets. Also i don't understand why people would buy a slow SSD while they cost almost the same as a Samsung.

 

 

But what i don't understand is: Mr Trump had big words about creating jobs for Americans ONLY! And look now, 2500 new jobs for Thailand, why didn't they do this in the US?

Same reason Carrier is moving jobs to Mexico, cheap labour. 

[BuaBS]

On maandag 12 juni 2017 at 10:09 PM, pegman said:

fruitman said:

I don't understand why harddisks are still being built for notebooks and tablets. Also i don't understand why people would buy a slow SSD while they cost almost the same as a Samsung.

 

Not everyone can afford 2 TB of SSD's in their notebooks/laptops or tablets.

I have 2 x 1 TB HDD's in my (old) laptop, it's not enough.  Try to buy a new laptop with more ...nearly impossible or you have go for the bad/slow Shingled magnetic recording (SMR) from Seagate .

I wonder when Western digital finally introduces Helium filled 2,5 inch drives ... maybe the new production line here in thailand ? Easy to buy 6 to even 10 TB 3,5 inch drives , but 2TB or more in 2,5 inch , is a problem . ( internal drives , not the ext HDD's ).

[dexjnr555]

On 6/12/2017 at 10:30 PM, ericthai said:

with you comment one would wonder how all the hard drives being made in Thailand work? 

 

Some of you guys talk when you dont know anything. Just because you encounter uneducated and lazy Thais in tourist areas doesn't mean all Thais are uneducated and lazy.  I have worked in the industrial sector in Thailand for years and there are some very good workers, technicians and engineers in Thailand just as good as any other country I have worked in. 

 

It's a pity that foreigners here tend to paint all Thais with the same brush (usually to do with so-called stupidity, lack of common sense etc), I wonder what's up with that? 

[Techno Viking]

On 12/06/2017 at 10:30 PM, ericthai said:

with you comment one would wonder how all the hard drives being made in Thailand work? 

 

Some of you guys talk when you dont know anything. Just because you encounter uneducated and lazy Thais in tourist areas doesn't mean all Thais are uneducated and lazy.  I have worked in the industrial sector in Thailand for years and there are some very good workers, technicians and engineers in Thailand just as good as any other country I have worked in. 

Iam glad you added the word "some" and I agree 100% with this, on the other hand a lot are lazy and many companies have a high turnover off staff due to this.