Tag: hard drive shortage

hard drive shortage latest update

This is the latest information we have been given regarding the hard drive shortage resulting from the floods in Thailand.

It seems that the  shortage could persist for much of next year. This is a blow to CCTV installers who have seen prices falling recently, there is however little that can be done in the short term to rectify this situation.

How will the Thailand floods affect your HDD supplies?

The infrastructure impact is still being assessed, but 30-40% of Hard Drive component production is done in Thailand and more than 25% of HDD assembly production is located in the Thailand flood area.

Therefore we have to assume that the impact will be considerable. The industry analysts are stating that:

  • There is significant shortage in Q4 2011 and it could be worse in Q1 2012. It may affect Q2 2012 (source: 3IDC)
  • Up to 70% price increases (source: 3IDC)
  • Pre-flood volumes will not come back until Q4 2012 (source: Gartner)
  • Pricing will be affected (source: Gartner)

For more information please click here. CLICK THIS LINK FOR MORE INFO AND PICTURES

Importantly, we have already seen hikes in prices in conjunction with industry consolidation (WD/Hitachi & Seagate/Samsung). The main consideration, however, may not be the price but whether your hard drives are available at all.

Taken from an update from SCC


Western Digital hard drive shortage

latest news.

Due to the flooding in Thailand and surrounding areas, WD have had to close 2 factories. 1 due to it being underwater and the other as it is inaccessible. This has resulted in a hard drive shortage in the short to medium term. As a result Western Digital have recalled all hard drives that are currently in transit to the World wide channel so they can reallocate supply.

hard drive western digital floods

They will be prioritising the channel in order to keep supplies flowing but still project they will be about 16 million drives short this quarter. The biggest worry however is that there is currently no visibility on when the closed factories will reopen as that all depends on when the floods recede and the state of the factories after.

western digital hard drive shortage

As Thailand is integral to where Hard drives and their components in general are manufactured (Seagate, Hitachi and Toshiba all have plants there) it is projected there will be a 50 million unit shortfall this quarter again with no realistic date as to when supply shortages will ease.

Hard drive shortage is inevitable and price rises will be reflected in line with the shortfall.


Is the world about to run out of hard drives?

CCTV and PC manufactures are panic buying  hard drives today, suddenly, there is a realization that we may be about to see a crisis not seen before in our industry, but why? This is taking place around the world and prices are soaring by as much as 50% as industry is starting to digest the impact of the flooding that has hit the Western digital factory in Thailand.

hard drive western digital floods

As these dramatic pictures show, the factory has been devastated and manufacture has been halted. It may be perhaps as long as March next year before full production can resume. It is reported that these are the worst floods ever seen in Thailand. The Thai people have been preparing for weeks for this eventually, huge sand bagging operations have been going on but despite huge efforts, they could no longer hold back the waters.

The irony is that this factory is also the main hub for the manufacture of components used in Seagate hard drives, Western Digitals main competition but also most other hard drives in the world!!  It looks like lack of production and supply will dramatically impact on prices, some reports already have reported a 20- 50% increase and bulk buying is impacting on supply.

With this one factory alone responsible for 60 % of Western Digital drives worldwide a real crisis could develop.

The CCTV industry is just one area that will be devastated if  hard drives are not readily available, many companies buy in 500 gig machines and upgrade themselves in order to fulfil their customers storage requirements, but soon many DVRs could be supplied with no hard drives at all as the shortage starts to impact across the CCTV industry.

western digital floods no hard drive production

For those who use IP CCTV solutions, they to will struggle to buy servers with the sort of memory they require. So no area in the CCTV industry is safe. All of a sudden it seems that having such a small number of suppliers for such a crucial component that seems to dominate many parts of our lives is going to impact us all.

hard drive shortage