Hoya To Build $145 million Glass Hard Disk Factory

To keep up with growing demand for personal computers, Japan firm Hoya Corp. to invest 13 billion yen (US$144.6 million) to construct a factory, possibly in Vietnam, to produce glass substrates for hard disks.

Hoya is the world’s top manufacturer of hard-disk glass substrates, with a market share of about 70 per cent. It makes them at three overseas factories in Thailand, the Philippines and Vietnam. These factories’ monthly output capacity totals slightly more than 25 million units.

Hoya plans to pick the location of the new factory shortly. Vietnam is the leading candidate.

The new factory is slated to begin operating in the year through March 31, 2011, boosting the firm’s output capacity by a little more than 30 per cent.

Hard-disk glass substrates are used in a wide range of portable devices, such as notebook computers, because they are more resistant to vibration and shock than aluminum substrates.

Anticipating supply shortages due to the growing popularity of netbooks and other low-priced notebooks, Hoya had considered expanding its factory in the Vietnamese city of Hanoi. But it abandoned the plan following the global financial crisis last autumn.

The company has decided to build a new factory because it believes that demand will surpass supply as early as 2010 as the global economy rebounds.