Singapore’s status as one of the world’s top locations for disk drive manufacturing has been further hit by the news that Seagate Technology is to lay off 1,600 staff in the territory. This comes after Western Digital’s recent decision to lay off 2,500 local workers. Seagate, the world’s biggest maker of computer disk drives, now employs about 16,000 workers in Singapore.
Following the announcement, Deputy Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong hinted that other disk drive makers are also planning to restructure their Singapore operations, and possibly follow Western Digital’s lead in relocating more labour-intensive operations to other countries such as neighboring Malaysia and Indonesia. Quantum Corp, IBM Corp and Maxtor Corp have sizable disk drive manufacturing operations in Singapore, but all denied any restructuring plans.
Lee said if worldwide restructuring of multinationals (MNCs) results in work being shifted to subcontractors in Singapore, it would not be a problem. But if the result is that operations are shifted overseas, say to Mexico or to Hungary, then we will lose not only the jobs provided directly by the MNCs, but also many more jobs in the supporting industries which supply the MNCs here, he said.
