GEORGE TOWN: Malaysia is likely to experience job cuts in the wake of a move by two American investors who are pulling out a major portion of their operations here.
Penang is set to be the largest casualty as hard disk maker Seagate Technology Plc and computer data storage firm Western Digital Corp (WD), said to be relocating the bulk of their operations to Thailand.
Business Times has learnt that Seagate will exit from Penang and Negri Sembilan. The Penang facility is said to have over 3,000 Malaysian staff.
The company is also said to be putting up its Bayan Lepas facility for sale, along with a 16.4ha land in Batu Kawan on mainland Penang where it had announced two years, of its expansion .
WD meanwhile, is expected to lay off 400 Malaysian staff and 800 foreign workers from its Penang manufacturing site.
“Seagate’s operations in Senai, Johor, will remain for now,” an industry source said.
Sources also said WD will begin to ramp down its slider operations from August as it prepares to move to Thailand.
Seagate is expected to wind up and transfer its operations to Korat in Thailand in the fourth quarter of next year.
In a statement earlier this week, forecasting financials for its fiscal fourth quarter of this year (ended last month), Seagate had said it would be cutting 6,500 jobs by the end of the next fiscal year, which wouldbe roughly 14 per cent of its global workforce.
Foreign media reports had stated that the newly announced job cuts will mainly affect employees involved in production.
The company’s main manufacturing facilities are based in Malaysia and China, with some in the United States and the United Kingdom.
Seagate’s investment history in Malaysia dates to 1988 and the largest layoff the company underwent in Penang was over a decade ago when some 4,000 people were laid off.
The company has 52,000 people on its global payroll.