History 2001: IBM Closed Rigid Magnetic Disk Plant in Ireland

“IBM opens a rigid magnetic disk plant in Ireland,” was the headline in our December 1998 issue.

Just over 2 years later, Big Blue has shut it down. The plant was officially opened in October 1998, with an investment of $250 million for the 150,000 square-foot building including 70,000 square feet of class 10,000 to 10 cleanrooms for the production of disk platters based on aluminum substrates from IBM’s Rochester, MN facility, sputtered with Balzers systems.

The Irish operations have been transfered to other IBM locations in Mainz, Germany, and San Jose, CA.

The official explanation of this closure is for “internal efficiencies.”

No layoffs are expected among the 400 to 500 plant employees, who will be reassigned to other positions in IBM Ireland.

The HDD manufacturer would seem to have excessive platter manufacturing capacity, particularly given that, in recent years, the increase in areal density has resulted in a significant decrease in the number of disks per drive.

According to TrendFocus, IBM will consolidate media operations in 2 plants and reduce its overall capacity from 30 million to 25 million pieces per quarter.

This article is an abstract of news published on issue 158 on March 2001 from the former paper version of Computer Data Storage Newsletter.