The following is the official information on the closedown of Seagate Technology (Suzhou) Co., Ltd. (Seagate Suzhou) that has drawn widespread social attention recently.

About Seagate Suzhou

Seagate Suzhou was registered and established in the West Zone of SIP Free Trade Zone (formerly known as the Zone A of Export Processing Zone) in January 2003. The predecessor of Seagate Suzhou was Maxtor Technology (Suzhou) Co., Ltd., which was purchased by Seagate Group at the end of 2005. Seagate Suzhou is mainly engaged in the production of self-owned brand (Seagate) laptop hard disk, computer hard disk and enterprise server hard disk.

The closedown of Seagate Suzhou is an integral part of Seagate's effort to optimize operation efficiency, integrate resources and control cost.

Seagate Group primarily produces traditional magnetic head driven hard disks in China. But currently new solid state disks have seized greater market share and are showing the trend of increase year by year. Besides, the demand for computers and other terminal products that use hard disks is on the decline, which in recent years has resulted in the constant reduction in the order volume at Seagate's factories in Suzhou and Wuxi and serious over-capacity.  

As per Seagate Suzhou's statement, the closedown is out of consideration for continuous optimization of operation efficiency. The closedown of Seagate Suzhou is one of Seagate Group's initiatives, which were announced in July 2016, to curtail its global production scale so as to get adapted to the current and future market demands. 

SIP Administrative Committee safeguards Seagate Suzhou employees' lawful rights and interests according to law

After learning about Seagate Suzhou's closedown, SIP Administrative Committee (SIPAC) has been paying attention to related updates. Upon getting the closedown confirmation, SIPAC attached great importance to it, followed up and responded actively to ensure the closedown procedure should be carried out in accordance with laws and regulations.

On one hand, the authorities instructed the company to complete the related procedure according to laws and regulations and work out the plan for employee severance. In light of Seagate Suzhou's current situation, the labor security department instructed Seagate Suzhou to formulate a lawful compensation plan for the early termination of labor contracts and solicit the opinions from the trade union and employee representatives.

On the other hand, the authorities requested the company should earnestly safeguard the lawful rights and interests of the employees. The labor security department sent staff to Seagate Suzhou to be stationed in the company, explaining policies and offering such services as unemployment registration, re-employment recommendation, etc. 

Up to 12pm, Jan 14, 1214 out of the 1900 employees subjected to the early termination of labor contracts have handled their resignation formalities as arranged by the company.

SIP steps up transformation, upgrading and innovative development in an all-round way

In the globalized industrial system, merger and reorganization is a common phenomenon in industrial transformation. Seagate Suzhou's closedown is just a case of the mergers and reorganizations of SIP enterprises, which should be regarded objectively and reasonably.

In recent years, SIP enterprises have been growing at an accelerated speed, and they have also been very active in outbound mergers and acquisitions. In the manufacturing sector, the out-of-town acquisition amount of four public companies in SIP alone reached 2 billion yuan from 2015-2016, which has not only expanded the companies' capacities, but also increased their market shares.

In the service industry sector, Tongcheng Tourism is pushing forward the integration of some travel services in the same industry, and will become the nation's biggest travel service group after completion. In the informatization industry sector, SIP has even seen some companies realize the internationalized layout of Internet resources through overseas acquisitions up to billions of US dollars.