Growth expected for Thailand’s HDD industry

Thailand’s hard disk drive (HDD) industry is expected to grow further as consumers continue to look for high-quality and cheap data storage devices.

Sampan Silapanad, president of the Electronic & Computer Employers' Association told Nation Group’s media arm Krungthep Turakij on Monday that HDD had gained 75% of the cloud and server market despite a decline in the item’s demand. Thailand, he noted, is a global HDD manufacturer with 80% of them being manufactured in the country. 

He confirmed that HDD and solid state drives (SSD) were being developed in terms of data storage capacity and price reduction amid high market competition. He expects the HDD to dominate the cloud and server market in the next five years as the SSD still has limitations on price and efficiency.

“The reliability of HDD and SSD is as good as ever, and their storage capacity will be developed further,” he said, adding that investors still have confidence in investing in HDD manufacturers like Seagate and WD.

Sampan confirmed that Thailand’s electronic industry will grow, but admitted it could not compare with neighbouring countries due to a difference in investment incentives.

He said the government’s policy to attract investment in Thailand’s electronic industry is good, but added he would like to see knowledge exchange in technology receive more attention,

“I believe that Thailand’s electronic industry will grow by 5 to 10% in the next three years,” he said.

However, he warned that geopolitical tensions, the green energy trend and global minimum tax posed challenges for Thailand’s electronic industrial growth.

Most companies that invested in the electronic industry abroad often paid a global minimum tax of 15% of their revenue to their mother companies rather than to the countries in which they invested, he explained.

He expects foreign companies to pay global minimum tax to Thailand if the country has attractive measures to support this issue. “If we have good and attractive measures, the Thai government will benefit from more investment in the country,” he said.

Electronic companies’ adjustment 

At least two large electronic companies in Thailand are adapting themselves to support an increase in consumers’ demand and new technology - Hana Microelectronics and Delta Electronics (Thailand).

Hana’s president and CEO Richard David Han said the company has planned to invest around 2.9 billion baht on manufacturing of silicon carbide products this year, such as electronic chips, automobile parts, solar cells and medical supplies. 

The company will invest another 1.6 billion baht in the manufacturing of other electronic products next year, he added.

Meanwhile, Delta told the Stock Exchange of Thailand that the company’s board had approved the purchase of machines worth 612.46 million baht from its affiliate company, Delta Electronics Int'l (Singapore).

This move aims to meet the strategy to transition the company towards smart manufacturing, Delta said.