WD Resumes HDD Production at Just One Factory
Just one building is back, but the rest is still in pretty wet and damaged shape.
On Thursday in its financial outlook for the December quarter, Western Digital gave an update on its Thailand flood recovery effort, reporting that production of hard drives finally resumed this week in one of its buildings in Bang Pa-in (BPI), Thailand, just one week ahead of internal schedules.
According to the company, this particular building was previously standing in six feet of water since flooding began back on October 15. The estate was eventually pumped dry as of November 17, and the lights officially switched back on over a week later. Hard drive production finally resumed as of November 30, the company said.
As for the remaining buildings at its BPI facility, all submerged slider manufacturing equipment has been removed from the BPI facilities for assessment, decontamination and refurbishment -- structural decontamination and restoration has now commenced. Western Digital expects to resume head slider production in the March 2012 quarter (Q3 FY'12) and also begin production in a new WD slider fab location in Penang, Malaysia, in the same time frame.
The company's other Thailand hard drive facilities at Navanakorn, however, still remain under approximately two feet of water. Western Digital expects the industrial estate to be pumped dry within ten days at which point the work of decontamination and refurbishment will commence.
"The company believes that hard drive industry shipments in the December quarter will be limited to approximately 120 million units due to production and supply constraints related to the historic flooding in Thailand," Western Digital said on Thursday. "This includes units that were in inventory at the beginning of the quarter. The company believes that demand for the December quarter is in the range of 170 million to 180 million units. The company believes that significant industry supply constraints will continue in the March quarter and beyond."
Earlier in the report, Western Digital said it now expects a fiscal Q2 (December quarter) revenue of at least $1.8 billion and gross margins above the high end of its business model range of 18-percent to 23-percent. The company also noted that it will be "vigorously contesting the arbitration decision announced November 21, 2011, in the legal matter with Seagate and has not yet determined the accounting treatment associated with this matter."
To read the full report, head here.
- Western Digital,
- Storage,
- Business,
- Western-Digital ,
- WD ,
- Thailand ,
- BPI ,
- Flooding
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Too late WD, I bought a 120GB OCZ Solid State Drive when my system drive failed and I'm not going back. My 2TB external drive from last year (2TB WD MyBook Essential purchased at a price of $69.99!) will be run into the ground before I buy another hard drive.
That sucks. I was planning on 2 2tb WD black drives, but the price has doubled since the flood.
Maybe this is why hard drives are so expensive "these days". I swear, I ordered a Momentus XT 500GB for $100ish about a year ago, and now, I had to wait until I got a good "deal" on Cyber Monday to get a DESKTOP 500GB hard drive for $70 at HALF OFF. Last I saw, you could get a 1TB drive for $80 regularly.
Talk about inflation!
Too late WD, I bought a 120GB OCZ Solid State Drive when my system drive failed and I'm not going back. My 2TB external drive from last year (2TB WD MyBook Essential purchased at a price of $69.99!) will be run into the ground before I buy another hard drive.
I'm waiting the HDD price to drop and i need 6TB because my x2 2TB are getting full. 1080P movies......
I am glad to see that they got at-least one re-opened, certainly better than no production at all. Although this should be a lesson learned to not put all of one's eggs into one basket. Sure the labor may be cheaper there but their entire production was halted and with serious costly damages because of a single event.
I think I might wait to buy a new HD from WD... IDK, something tells me that quality may be an issue for the first few batches of drives coming from a formerly dunked factory. lol
I'm waiting the HDD price to drop and i need 6TB because my x2 2TB are getting full. 1080P movies......
I would never usually recommend this, but buy now, it's only going to go up if this continues. Find a cyber week deal and just buy enough to hold you over for a year or so
I think I might wait to buy a new HD from WD... IDK, something tells me that quality may be an issue for the first few batches of drives coming from a formerly dunked factory. lol
And this is another good reason to buy now f you are going to need a hard drive soon. Buy before the newest batches start coming in.
This is why they should have some plants in the U.S.
This is why they should have some plants in the U.S.
Right, because no natural disasters happen in the U.S.?
That point aside, prices of hard drives produced domestically would be even higher than they are right now.
Western Digital FTW!
This is why they should have some plants in the U.S.
a) No place on Earth is safe from natural disasters.
b) Cheaper working force allows cheaper products. Minimum wage in USA is much much higher than in Thailand.
there's the rest of the world that they can build these factories in...
Oh, I see. This explains why WD drives are twice as expensive. I was helping someone with a computer build the other day, and I was really shocked to see the price of hard drives.
a) No place on Earth is safe from natural disasters.b) Cheaper working force allows cheaper products. Minimum wage in USA is much much higher than in Thailand.
that said there are people in the us who prefer to buy made in the usa products even if they cost more
with electronics there likely won't be a huge difference, but i'd pay a good bti mroe to help support my own country's gdp... i am in the minority though so maybe you're right that it wouldn't make enough of a drop in the bucket
yay for recovery! I haven't been a fan of WD for a very long time, but if they get their prices back down first I have a server waiting for 4 2TB (or larger) drives. Whoever gets back down first will win my little bid.
that said there are people in the us who prefer to buy made in the usa products even if they cost morewith electronics there likely won't be a huge difference, but i'd pay a good bti mroe to help support my own country's gdp... i am in the minority though so maybe you're right that it wouldn't make enough of a drop in the bucket
And there are others of us who would rather pay someone who wants to work hard and improve themselves rather than paying someone's union dues for inferior products.
And there are others of us who would rather pay someone who wants to work hard and improve themselves rather than paying someone's union dues for inferior products.
who says its an inferior product... try finding a good quality tool not made by theUS, Germany, or Swiss ... its difficult. with tech products i admit there likely won't be much if any difference, but when it comes to buying anything made of steel made in the US still means something
some people think unions are good, without them we'd all still eb workign for penuts in dangerous workign conditions with no days off and no ovetime pay for it... what some unions have become is bad... btu not all unions are like that, and they have doen alot of good for us
This is not a pissing contest or about "cheap probability". It's about sustainability, past time to see what's going on and where.
The article that was quoted above.
... and it sucks, that the production is just in one cheep an risky place...
This sucks. I'm just now getting parts together to setup a media server and stupid hard drives are most likely going to be going up in price for the next few months....
Woot, progress! Especially ahead of schedule progress
Right, because no natural disasters happen in the U.S.?That point aside, prices of hard drives produced domestically would be even higher than they are right now.
This is why no one likes you and I am being serious, you seem to be the most disliked article writer on Tom's. I am not trying to anger you rather alert you of this but take it as you will.
Yes natural disasters can and do happen everywhere. It's not a matter of if but rather when. But putting every single factory in one general area is a poor idea. Just as what happened to WD their entire production of HD's halted because of a single event as well as incurred serious and costly damage. This can be avoided by simply spreading them out a reasonable distance.
While you are right if they made some in the US we could expect the normal price to make a small jump but it would not be at the prices we are currently facing at the moment due to them putting everything in one small area and getting hit by the flood. The very least they could have done is manufactured them elsewhere where labor costs are still generally low. This situation would have been much brighter for both WD and the consumers.
I really can't believe you are trying to make the claim that prices would be higher if they made at-least some in the US rather than having a complete long stop of production on a much demanded product. A product in high worldwide demand when it becomes short on supply will make a price jump much higher than simply picking where it is made.
Not buying a new drive anytime soon.
Still waiting for a 100 bucks 160-250Gb SSD or an 70 bucks 2TB HDD i still got 200gb on my 1Tb drive and another 150 on my 500gb Main drive but comon is an Caviar Blue Sata III and the 1tb is a Samsung Sata II very slow xD...
Brackish water=corrosive liquid
Corrosive liquid+equipments that are so sensitive that a few dust particles would bring production to a halt=...
A really expensive and long repair. I wonder how long would it take for hard drive production to return to normal.
This is why no one likes you [...]
Well, that's not very nice. And on a Friday and everything! I love Marcus.
Right, because no natural disasters happen in the U.S.?That point aside, prices of hard drives produced domestically would be even higher than they are right now.
Marcus is right. Even US nuclear plants were flooded this summer. There is no perfect geo location.
anybody who didn't bite on an SSD on black friday when most were at a 1:1 cost to storage ratio is, in my humble opinion, a fool.
A 120, much moreso a 240, should be more than enough storage space for somebody who properly manages their data and doesn't store HD movies or pics on their drive.
Looks like it's time to stock up on blank DVDs until prices go back to normal.