Thai floods mean big loss to Western Digital exports-minister

BANGKOK Oct 18 (Reuters) - Western Digital is expected to lose about 80 billion baht ($2.6 billion) in exports of hard disk drives from two plants in Thailand that have been forced to close because of floods, the country's industry minister said on Tuesday.

Wannarat Channukul told reporters after a meeting with executives of Western Digital that its exports last year from the plants were worth about 200 billion baht.

"They asked us to speed up draining water from the plants. If it could be done in one to two months, the company expected to then take about four to six months months for repairs. This will cause them a loss of about 80 billion in HDD exports," Wannarat said.