Seagate puts £90m into storage

Seagate Technology is spending £90m on technology to increase disk drive capacity by reducing the size of components.

The development and fabrication will be done at its Springtown plant in Londonderry, Northern Ireland, over the next three years.

The plant produces around 60 per cent of read-write heads for Seagate, and is its largest manufacturers of tape heads. The £90m will be spent on a set of machines that will enable the company to reduce the size of its components and improve capacity.

Plant manager John Spangler said in a statement: "With more and more devices adopting digital technology formats this creates opportunities for the company in new applications, including consumer devices such as televisions, personal video recorders, gaming consoles, and MP3 players."

Ian Pearson, minister for enterprise, trade and investment at the Northern Ireland Office, said the investment was the most significant in recent years.

"As well as positioning the Springtown operation at the very centre of Seagate's most advanced technology, the investment is a signal to the international electronics industry that Northern Ireland is a perfect location for knowledge-led companies with a strong global focus," he said in a statement.