Japan’s Toshiba Corp. plans to spend billions of pesos over the next three years to make more hard disk drives in the Philippines. The government says the expansion could create about 3,000 jobs.
The money will go toward producing more nearline hard disk drives (NL-HDDs), the Department of Finance (DOF) said in a statement on Monday, Oct. 5. These are high-capacity drives that data centers use to store huge amounts of information. Demand for them is growing with cloud computing and artificial intelligence (AI).
Two High-Level Meetings in One Week
- On Thursday, Oct. 1, Executive Secretary Ralph Recto met Toshiba senior executive vice president Koji Ikeya at Malacañang, the Philippine News Agency (PNA), Philstar and Manila Standard reported. PEZA Director General Tereso Panga also attended, according to Manila Standard.
- On Monday, Oct. 5, Finance Secretary Frederick Go met Toshiba officials led by Ikeya, who is also the company’s chief operating officer, at the DOF, according to the DOF and GMA News.
“We are rooting for you. We are glad to hear that your investments in the Philippines are doing very well,” Recto told the Toshiba executives, according to Philstar and PNA. He called the plan a “vote of confidence for the Philippines.”
Go said the expansion would help “build an electronics and tech industry ecosystem that creates quality jobs for Filipinos.” He credited reforms such as the CREATE MORE law.
“We remain committed to growing our presence here, building on the skills and dedication of our Filipino employees, and working with the Philippine government to advance our next phase of investment,” Ikeya said in the DOF statement.
How Much Is Toshiba Spending?
The government did not give a figure. GMA News noted that the DOF “did not specify the investment amount.”
Japanese business daily Nikkei reported on Oct. 2 that Toshiba would invest about ¥60 billion (around US$380 million) in its Philippine HDD facilities, as part of a plan to double its data center HDD capacity within fiscal 2027. This is according to Investing.com and TrendForce, which both cited Nikkei. Toshiba and the DOF have not confirmed that amount.
The Expansion Has Already Started
Toshiba’s local unit, Toshiba Information Equipment (Philippines) Inc. (TIP), marked its 30th anniversary on Oct. 2. In a press release that day, it said it had begun making nearline HDDs at its Laguna Technopark facility and made its first shipment from the expanded line.
TIP said it aims to nearly double its annual production capacity by fiscal 2027 compared with fiscal 2025, measured by storage capacity. It also said it will keep hiring and training workers, especially engineers and technical staff.
According to the DOF, TIP runs two main plants in Laguna, at Laguna Technopark and at Carmelray Industrial Park 1 in Calamba, making hard disk drives and enterprise solid-state drives.
A Closer Look at the 3,000 Jobs
The 3,000-job estimate comes from the DOF and Malacañang. Nikkei also reported, according to TrendForce, that Toshiba plans to automate more inspection and cleanroom work at the Philippine plant, which could cut the extra workers normally needed for an expansion like this by about 40 percent. The reports don’t say whether the 3,000 figure already takes this into account.
Why It Matters
Electronics are the country’s biggest export, Bilyonaryo noted. The industry’s roadmap targets $70 billion in semiconductor exports and $40 billion in electronics exports by 2030, BusinessWorld reported.
Toshiba is one of the world’s three big HDD makers, alongside US firms Western Digital and Seagate. It hopes to raise its market share by storage capacity from just over 10 percent to 30 percent in the medium term, Investing.com reported, citing Nikkei.
