1 April 1999: Japanese groups Kobe Steel, Ltd. and Nippon Sheet Glass Co., Ltd. plan to establish a joint venture company in Southeast Asia to produce glass substrates used in hard disk drives.
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1 April 1999: Japanese groups Kobe Steel, Ltd. and Nippon Sheet Glass Co., Ltd. plan to establish a joint venture company in Southeast Asia to produce glass substrates used in hard disk drives. The 50/50 joint venture company, Advanced Disk Technology Sdn. Bhd. (or ADT), will be established in April 1999. Plans call for ADT to be located in Malaysia, with production to begin in December this year. ADT will enable the two companies to supply glass substrates that meet the stringent requirement of HDD makers. The joint venture brings together the world“s major producers of aluminum disks and glass disks. Approximately 3 billion yen will be initially invested in the new venture. By March 2000, ADT is anticipated to employ 400 people. ADT will be capitalized at roughly 1.5 billion yen. ADT will produce and market 3.5 inch (95 mm) glass substrates to HDD makers, which will process them into storage disks used in hard drives. By June 2000, ADT will have a production capacity of 2 million substrates per month. Sales in 2000 are expected to reach 6 billion yen. The companies said that hard disks have traditionally been made of aluminum, and that in recent years, glass has been growing in popularity as more data can be recorded on this material. Glass is also more impact resistant, they said. As a result, nearly all computer makers have switched to using 2.5 inch (65 mm) glass disks in their notebook computers. Kobe Steel and Nippon Sheet Glass anticipate that demand for 3.5 inch glass disks will grow in the coming years.