IBM Corp’s Hungarian disk drive plant will become the company’s biggest in Europe when it raises output to 3 million drives next year: the $100m Szekesfehervar plant was recently extended by a 200 square foot unit. It assembles and tests 3.5 drives for desktop computers and 2.5 drives for portable ones. The heads, platters, cases and boards come from southeast Asia, Germany and Italy, though platters will come from Ireland in due course, and the final product is exported, 40% of it to IBM’s own companies and 60% to other manufacturers. It currently employs some 700 to 750 people but the workforce will grow to around 2,500 people.
