Driven by a boom in SSD demand around the globe, Lite-On Storage, a Strategic Business Group (SBG) of Lite-On Technology Corporation, announced plans for a multi-million-dollar expansion of its manufacturing plant in Hsinchu, Taiwan. The company, which is best known as a provider of solid-state drives (SSDs) for storing data under the Lite-On and Plextor brands, said it expects its expansion to be completed by the end of 2016.

"Researchers say more data has been generated in the past two years alone than in the entire history of the human race, which is putting enormous pressure on the storage market to keep pace," said Darlo Perez, Managing Director of Lite-On Storage Americas. "Lite-On Storage has experienced unprecedented growth and our business is poised to continue growing our market position as well as accelerate delivery of advanced storage solutions in anticipation to roll out our portfolio of new products in 2017."

Lite-On said that it will invest approximately US$30 million to add a second plant of more than 200,000 square feet at its manufacturing site in Hsinchu Science Park. The extra capacity is expected to lead to the creation of 150 new jobs, and boost production of enterprise SSDs at the facility by over 30 percent.

Lite-On’s plant expansion comes as the company continues to gain traction in the growing SSD market. According to a recent report from Forward Insights, a storage market analysis firm, shipments of SSDs in the first quarter of 2016 were up 37 percent from the same period a year ago. Lite-On more than doubled its shipments to become the third largest supplier of SSDs worldwide in the first quarter of 2016, according to Forward Insights.