Discussion Forums > Technology
WD HDD Industry Will Be Supply Constrained Due to Thailand Flooding
AnimeJanai:
Most drives and drive parts are made in china anyways. So why don't the chinese suppliers ramp up production even more to take advantage of the market? The chinese companies that make the raw parts could also decide this is a good time for them to make hard drives of their own seeing as how they make the parts with the exception of the controller, heads, hub, and platters.
So, with those thailand factories underwater, the actual shortage is technically that of heads, platters, and wave-soldered controller boards?
Lupin:
--- Quote from: AnimeJanai on November 03, 2011, 08:44:09 PM ---Most drives and drive parts are made in china anyways. So why don't the chinese suppliers ramp up production even more to take advantage of the market? The chinese companies that make the raw parts could also decide this is a good time for them to make hard drives of their own seeing as how they make the parts with the exception of the controller, heads, hub, and platters.
So, with those thailand factories underwater, the actual shortage is technically that of heads, platters, and wave-soldered controller boards?
--- End quote ---
Most of the HDD parts are not made in a single place. For example, Hitachi makes the platters in the US and Japan, the drive electronics in China and Taiwan, drive heads are diffused in the Philippines, etc. Those are then sent to Thailand for assembly.
You can't just ramp up production on another location. You need space, time and money to setup. And since these are harddrives, you need clean rooms, which should be certified first before it can start production.
Expect more problems in the HDD market in the coming months/years now that China can cut off rare earth shipments at will just to inflate prices
ColdFission:
Yeah, saw the prices spike over at NCIX. I do have plans on building a new rig next year and I am glad that I have some spare drives around thanks to my recent RMA with WD.
AnimeJanai:
Would it cause a sympathetic price rise in solid-state drives too? I still see their prices dropping. This is an example of SSD on sale in a local Fry's retail store.
Reesebiz:
I got nothing to worry about. I already have 2 WD external HDDs.
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