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.
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Kevin Parrish has over a decade of experience as a writer, editor, and product tester. His work focused on computer hardware, networking equipment, smartphones, tablets, gaming consoles, and other internet-connected devices. His work has appeared in Tom's Hardware, Tom's Guide, Maximum PC, Digital Trends, Android Authority, How-To Geek, Lifewire, and others.
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drapacioli 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.Reply -
bucknutty That sucks. I was planning on 2 2tb WD black drives, but the price has doubled since the flood.Reply -
tuffjuff 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.Reply
Talk about inflation! -
kimyeang88 drapacioliToo 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.Reply
I'm waiting the HDD price to drop and i need 6TB because my x2 2TB are getting full. 1080P movies...... -
NuclearShadow 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.Reply -
gmarsack 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. lolReply -
drapacioli kimyeang88I'm waiting the HDD price to drop and i need 6TB because my x2 2TB are getting full. 1080P movies......Reply
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 -
drapacioli gmarsackI 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. lolReply
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. -
Marcus Yam whooleoThis is why they should have some plants in the U.S.Right, because no natural disasters happen in the U.S.?Reply
That point aside, prices of hard drives produced domestically would be even higher than they are right now.