History (1995): Seagate Adds Head Plant in USA

Seagate Technology (Scotts Valley) is pursuing its policy of vertical integration with the construction of 2 new components facilities.

The completion of a third, multi-million dollar 200mm wafer manufacturing plant will begin this fall in Bloomington, MN.

Magnetic heads will then be cut from the wafers. The plant will adjoin existing facilities in the city and is scheduled to begin production in January 1997 with 500 people. The new 225,000 square foot facility will produce inductive thin-film and MR heads.

“Our goal is to maintain our position as the largest manufacturer of magnetic recording heads in the world and to generate annual revenues of $1 billion from the OEM sale of components by the end of the decade,” said Dr. Brendan Hegarty, EVP and COO for Seagate’s components group. “Combined with our facility in Northern Ireland and our existing operations in Bloomington, this new plant will boost our WW production capability to more than 7.5 million recording heads per week.”

The disk drive manufacturer currently operates 2 wafer plants: the recently expanded Springtown facility in Londonderry, Northern Ireland, and its recording head operations in Bloomington, the largest recording head wafer production facility in the world, according to the company.

In addition, the Californian firm will soon break ground on a 220,000 square-foot HGA plant in Korat, Thailand. The new facility will serve as an extension of the existing HGA operations already in place in Bangkok and will be located in Nahon Ratchasima (also known as Korat) in the North-East region of Thailand. This new plant, expected to begin production in April 1 996, represents an investment of about $40 million in land, facilities and equipment.

This article is an abstract of news published on the former paper version of Computer Data Storage Newsletter on issue 92, published on September 1995.