Western Digital Shutting Down Hard Drive Factory

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Western Digital Shutting Down Hard Drive Factory

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/western-digital-hdd-malaysia,37473.html

Quote

With the SSD and NAND flash memory markets booming, Western Digital has made the tough decision to shut down its HDD (hard disk drive) manufacturing factory in Petaling Jaya, Malaysia by the end of 2019.

 

Western Digital first opened up shop in Malaysia in 1973. Its 1,000,000 square-foot Petaling Jaya factory commenced operations manufacturing custom semiconductors, but gradually transitioned to producing consumer and enterprise hard drives. Western Digital would then later expand the Petaling Jaya factory with its own $1.2 billlion dollar R&D facility. However, Western Digital has been in a slump the last couple of years. 

HGST Technologies Malaysia, one of Western Digital's subsidiaries, closed the doors on its Bayan Lepas factory about two years ago. Once the Petaling Jaya factory goes out of commission, Western Digital will have no other choice but to spread out hard drive production between its remaining factories. Luckily, the major hard drive manufacturer still owns a 1.7 million square-foot facility in Bang Pa-In, Thailand and a 730,000 square-foot production facility in Prachinburi, Thailand.