Japanese steel manufacturer Kobelco is contributing to the increasing demand for data storage components across the world, manufacturing aluminium ground substrates, one of the main components of hard disks.
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In a hard disk, magnetic data is stored on a circular disk, which is typically made using an aluminium or glass substrate. Approximately one billion disks are sold per year in the global market, with the Kobelco group one of only two Japanese companies manufacturing aluminium substrates, with a 65 percent hold over the global market share.
The company has been constantly developing technologies for many years, which corresponds to higher recording density of hard disks by controlling the substrate surface roughness and waviness in nanometre order, achieving a surface defect reduction of nanometre size.
"We have 1,300 people working in the company in Penang. We hire mostly locals as well as foreigners to work with us. We are the one of the largest manufacturers of the component for hard disk drives in the world," KOBE Precision Technology chief operating officer Norzaman Bin Othman said.
Kobe Precision Technology was incorporated in Penang in 1992 as a subsidiary of KOBELCO, Japan.
