California's SanDisk sets up RM1.2bil Penang plant

GEORGE TOWN: SanDisk Corp is putting up a RM1.2bil manufacturing plant in Penang, which is scheduled to start production in March next year.

SanDisk, a leading flash memory storage manufacturer headquartered in Milpitas, California, is listed on Nasdaq, and is also a Fortune 500 and S&P 500 company.

To meet the March 2015 deadline, its subsidiary SanDisk Storage Malaysia Sdn Bhd is now recruiting, via the Penang Career Assistance and Talent Centre web portal, skilled workers with the relevant degrees in electronics, computer science, and industrial engineering to fill the IT business analyst, business system analyst, and engineering positions.

SanDisk plans to spend the RM1.2bil in five years for its operations in Penang and recruit over 1,000 employees, sources told StarBiz.

SanDisk’s new manufacturing facility is undergoing construction on a 30-acre site in Batu Kawan, south Seberang Prai.

It is learnt that the company is now looking for more land in the area for a future expansion exercise, according to sources familiar with the industry.

The new plant in Penang, aimed at strengthening SanDisk’s position in Asia, will produce flash memory solutions using wafer imported from Japan,

Last August, SanDisk completed its acquisition of Smart Storage Systems, a developer of enterprise solid state drives based on the SATA and SAS storage protocols.

Prior to SanDisk’s takeover, Smart Storage president John Scaramuzzo had in May 2013 announced plans to set up a high-volume manufacturing facility in Penang and a new research and development facility in Singapore.

After the acquisition, Scaramuzzo is now SanDisk’s Enterprise Storage Solutions senior vice-president and general manager.

SanDisk’s expansion plans in Asia with a high-volume manufacturing facility in Penang is in line with the latest forecast from a BCC Research report published recently in June.

The Massachusetts-based BCC Research says the global market for solid-state flash memory and related technologies is expected to grow to US$43.9bil by 2018, with a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.8%.

Asia is the largest and fastest growing market, projected to account for more than 50% of global sales across all segments.

“Flash memory is cheaper, lighter, stronger, and faster than hard disk-based memory systems.

“It has already been widely adapted into the mobile and enterprise computing markets and promises to be the dominant storage technology moving forward.

“Asia, by far the dominant region in the global market, is expected to reach US$22.4bil in sales by 2018, with a CAGR of 8.3%.

“Growth in this region is being driven by a steadily improving regional economy, technological advances, and falling production prices.

“The North American market, the second largest region, is expected to grow to nearly US$8.8bil by 2018, registering a CAGR of 6.8%,” the report says. - The Star