Toshiba plans Philippine expansion for nearline HDD production, 3,000 jobs expected

Toshiba Corp. plans to expand production capacity in the Philippines for nearline hard disk drives to meet growing data storage demand. The Department of Finance said the expansion is expected to generate 3,000 jobs and strengthen the country's electronics manufacturing ecosystem.

Toshiba Corp. is planning to expand its production capacity in the Philippines to make more nearline hard disk drives (NL-HDDs) to supply growing demand for data storage, the Department of Finance (DoF) said on Monday. The expansion is expected to generate 3,000 jobs.

NL-HDDs provide high-capacity storage for data centers, with demand rising due to the growth of cloud computing, artificial intelligence, digital services and other data-intensive technologies.

“We see Toshiba’s planned expansion as an opportunity to strengthen our industrial base, build an electronics and tech industry ecosystem that creates quality jobs, and position the Philippines to capture opportunities in the growing global technology and data economy,” Finance Secretary Frederick D. Go said in a statement.

Since 1995, the Philippines has been a major production base for Toshiba’s electronics manufacturing business, particularly for HDDs. Toshiba Information Equipment (Philippines), Inc. currently operates two production facilities in Laguna — one in the Laguna Technopark–Special Economic Zone and another in the Carmelray Industrial Park–Special Economic Zone.

Its Philippine operations cover the manufacturing and assembly of hard disk drives, enterprise solid-state drives and advanced helium-filled HDDs, as well as engineering and design services, rework and printed circuit board assembly.

“Toshiba’s latest investment reinforces the company’s long-term commitment to the country while creating opportunities to deepen local supply-chain linkages, develop Filipino talent, and expand higher-value manufacturing activities,” the DoF said. The Philippines is seeking to advance its electronics production beyond assembly, test and packaging to advanced manufacturing, amid growing demand for artificial intelligence-backed hardware.

The Philippine Semiconductor and Electronics Industry Roadmap has set a target of US$70 billion for semiconductor exports and US$40 billion for electronics by 2030.