Jul. 31--Hutchinson Technology, which has been hit hard by the global slowdown in the high-tech market, lost $42.1 million in its third quarter, a four-fold increase over its losses in the same period last year, the company reported Thursday.

But the maker of disk-drive assemblies for computers is gearing up for a recovery, saying it will resume plans to open an assembly plant in Thailand in 2010.

Whether the Asian plant takes work from the company's already shrunken operations in Minnesota and Wisconsin, or adds capacity, will depend upon whether worldwide demand for disk drive assemblies picks up. The Thailand plant is expected to start with about 100 employees, but if it is successful, it could grow, company officials said.

Hutchinson will use the Thai plant to produce its older disk-drive technology "where we are most likely to have success and ramp up quickly," said Kathleen Skarvan, president of the company's disk-drive components division. The company initially announced plans to build a plant in Asia last fall, but it quickly shelved those plans after the start of the financial meltdown, company spokeswoman Connie Pautz said.

The company hoarded cash by paying down some debt early and feels it can move forward on the Thailand plant now, CEO Wayne Fortun told analysts Thursday.

Hutchinson has slashed more than 1,700 jobs since December, a 44 percent reduction, and it has closed a 300,000-square foot assembly plant in Sioux Falls, S.D., selling it for $12

million, less than half what it paid to build it in 1997.

Hutchinson Technology now employs 2,500 people worldwide, including 1,150 at its Hutchinson, Minn., headquarters, 1,085 at a plant in Eau Clare, Wis., and 127 at a facility in Plymouth, with another 100 scattered in Asia and Europe.

Hutchinson reported revenue for the quarter ending June 28 at $106.1 million, down 29.5 percent from last year.

The quarterly loss of $42.1 million includes a $20.8 million charge for a write-down on manufacturing equipment and $4.9 million in severance payments.

Hutchinson is forecasting a single-digit decline in fourth-quarter shipments and sales compared with the June quarter because Seagate Technology, a major customer, is phasing out purchases.

Leslie Brooks Suzukamo can be reached at 651-228-5475.

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