Hitachi Global Storage Technologies announced the beginning of construction of its multi-million dollar HDD-manufacturing fab in Shenzhen, China. The facility is expected to begin operation in less than a year and bring the manufacturing costs for some products down for Hitachi.

Hitachi Global Storage Technologies (Hitachi GST) announced in June its plan to invest up to $500 million to create a disk drive “mega manufacturing center” in Shenzhen. Hitachi’s November 3 ceremony represents the initiation of phase one of the development, involving construction of a 44 000-square-meter manufacturing facility, to be completed by Q3 2005 and due to start production of 3.5” disk drives in Q4 2005.

The new facility will align disk drive final assembly with Hitachi’s two existing Shenzhen-based component manufacturing facilities and an extensive supplier network. Hitachi expects the manufacturing center to employ nearly 7000 people in its first phase to meet the growing demand for hard disk drives.

The second phase of Hitachi Global Storage Products (Shenzhen) Co. development is expected to expand the manufacturing facility into a 200 000-square-meter site, after 2005. Ultimately, the facility will be capable of producing disk drives of varying form factors, giving Hitachi GST the flexibility required to meet future demand in the traditional IT and consumer segments. It will use state-of-the-art manufacturing processes that support the highly technical disk drive industry, Hitachi said.

“Hitachi GST’s growth in Shenzhen aligns with this vision and will contribute to the Hitachi Ltd. target of high, double-digit annual growth in China. Hitachi is staging exhibitions in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou from October to November 2004. These exhibitions showcase how Hitachi’s collective strengths can support the development of cities in China and the country's future,” Hitachi said at Hitachi Exhibition, China – 2004.