History (1996): Seagate Expands PCBA Ops in Malaysia

Seagate Technology is investing $19 million to expand its printed circuit board assemblies (PCBAs) into Malaysia.

Initially employing 1,500 people, the new plant will be located on an 11.3-acre plot in the Senai Industrial Park in JohorBahru, near the company’s Senoko plant in Singapore, and will support existing operations in Singapore and Batam.

Constructionhas begun on phase one of the Senai project, a 120,000 square-foot single-story building, and is expected to be completed in July.

Production of more than 20,000 PCBAs per day is anticipated in August.

Output of the new plant will be consumed primarily by disk drive operations in Perai, Malaysia and Singapore.

“Seagate’s Senoko and Batam facilities currently produce more than 72,000 PCBAs and utilize nearly 19 million parts daily,” said EVP and COO Ron Verdoorn. “But that satisfies only 82% of Seagate’s growing internal demand for PCBAs.”

This article is an abstract of news published on the former paper version of Computer Data Storage Newsletter on issue 101, published on June 1996.

Note: Seagate closed Malaysian manufacturing facilities in 2016.