Toshiba invests 60B yen in Philippines HDD expansion

Toshiba announced it will invest 60 billion yen (about $380 million) to expand its hard drive manufacturing operations in the Philippines, aiming to nearly double production capacity for AI and cloud storage drives by fiscal 2027, according to techradar.com.

The new production lines will handle drives capable of storing up to 40% more data than existing products. Toshiba also plans to automate inspection and cleanroom operations at its Philippine facilities, a move expected to reduce additional staffing requirements by around 40%.

Market context

The investment would be Toshiba's first major HDD expansion in roughly five years. The company currently holds slightly more than 10% of the global HDD market when measured by storage capacity, and is pursuing 65TB-class drives around 2030, followed later by models capable of reaching 100TB.

Rivals have moved to lock in production. Seagate has reportedly allocated most of its nearline HDD capacity through 2028, with some customers discussing requirements extending into 2029 and beyond. Western Digital has committed much of its 2027 production, with some capacity for 2028 and 2029 already covered. Western Digital is separately planning about $1 billion of investment in Japan through 2030 for research, manufacturing technology, recruitment, and cooperation with universities.

Component supply is also expanding. Nitto Denko plans to spend 28 billion yen (about $117 million) to expand CISFLEX production, with capacity expected to rise 40% by fiscal 2028 from fiscal 2025. The company controls more than 90% of the global market for the component used in HDD magnetic-head suspension assemblies. SSD prices run about 20 times higher than HDDs, according to TrendForce.