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Seagate & WD woes because of Thailand flooding.

http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20111016PD200.html
Suppliers of hard disk drives (HDDs) have lowered inventory levels from 20-25 days to 10-15 days due to weak demand, according to industry sources. The decreased inventory volumes will last until the end of November or the beginning of December, and subsequent global supply may be short because the serious flooding in Thailand, the world's largest production base of HDD components and HDDs, has disrupted production, according to the sources.

Western Digital, Seagate Technology, Hitachi Global Storage Technologies and Toshiba as well as HDD motor maker Nidec, magnetic pick-up head maker TDK, HDD component maker Min Aik Technology and HDD PCBA maker Cal-Comp Electronics have factories in Thailand. The supply chain has been impacted by the flooding and supply will not be able to reach a normal level over the next six weeks, the sources pointed out
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and
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203658804576636951367373290.html
Western Digital Corp. said flooding in Thailand is having a "significant impact" on the hard-disk drive maker's operations and its ability to meet customer demand in the current quarter, adding supply concerns to an industry already hurt by weak consumer spending on PCs.

The flooding in Thailand, the world's second-largest exporter of hard-disk drives, comes during the key selling season for hard-disk drives, with PC makers obtaining supplies for holiday sales. Analysts said it likely will lead to higher prices and potential supply constraints later this year or early next year.
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Stock up, indeed!
 
The Seagate conference call on this noted that they had already finished contract negotiations with OEMs for the quarter, so your basic Dell / HP / Compaq type machine may not see a big hit on price. I don't think that applies to the drives that end up at places like Fry's / Microcenter / Amazon / Newegg though. This is one of the first places I'd expect to see high prices and low stock.
 
Looks like raw materials for making these is also going to be a big problem until sometime late January from what I read.
 
Elixer said:
Looks like raw materials for making these is also going to be a big problem until sometime late January from what I read.
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We are hearing as long as March..

NIDEC is underwater too.

I just got pics of the WD plant. Poor people. 🙁
 
:'(

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Thanks for the pics, SuperSix. They really put a human touch on this discussion.

Good thing I have a few spare drives from recent hot deals.

I was looking forward to a hot deal on the Hitachi 7K1000.D, but I guess I'll have to keep using my existing Samsung F3 drives a bit longer.
 
Yeah, good thing I ordered my five Hitachi 5K3000 series 2TB drives earlier this month. Price was $80 FS per drive, now they are $100 + ship each. I saved $100+.
 
On top of that, getting factories and product lines restarted can be problematic often with first lots having subtle reliability/quality issues which might not show up until they are actually put in use by the consumer.
 
Ouch! I've been picking up 500GB drives for $35-40 almost all year and now the cheapest 500GB drive on Newegg is $56. 1TB disks that have been regularly on sale for $50 shipped are now $65+. Glad I picked up a bunch of drives a couple months ago.
 
Gigantopithecus said:
Ouch! I've been picking up 500GB drives for $35-40 almost all year and now the cheapest 500GB drive on Newegg is $56. 1TB disks that have been regularly on sale for $50 shipped are now $65+. Glad I picked up a bunch of drives a couple months ago.
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Prices are going to increase again on Monday.
 
*sigh*. I've been thinking about getting a 3TB drive for about a month. I didn't expect prices to rise so fast. I just got a 2TB drive for what a 3TB cost a week or two ago, just because I don't like being without enough space to back up my system.

With that, I should be good until 2013. (Thinking of buying a laptop next year, but it could use an SSD. Imagine, getting a "cheap" SSD instead of a HDD. 😱)
 
I just checked local prices - 240€ for cheapest 3TB HDD 🙁

I am lucky as hell that I bought 3TB HDD few weeks ago. I should be OK for next 12 months.
 
I was looking at drives for the last couple of weeks, just realised I am really close to needing a new one, check prices and they are up at least 20%.
 
Not all Seagate drives are made in Thailand. Last year,I bought a Momentus XT 320GB from the Egg for $116. Today I bought a Momentus XT 500GB from the Egg for $119. I believe these drives are made in China. The 320GB was. $3 for 180GB more is not what I would call a big uptick.
 
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