HDD Prices are Increasing Rapidly; 50% in One Week

Prices for hard drives have jumped by as much as 50 percent within one week, market research firm IHS said. About a quarter of all hard drives are manufactured in Thailand and it appears that all major vendors are affected in some way.

Western Digital previously said that it may see a revenue decline of about 60 percent in the current quarter and told German publication Golem.de that it will be able to produce only 22 to 26 million drives this quarter, instead of the planned 58 million units. A spokesperson said that WD "currently waits for the factories to dry" to be able to restart its manufacturing tools. What makes matters worse are the usually thin profit margins in the HDD industry, which means that manufacturers typically have only five to seven days of material supply.

A Seagate manager told CRN India that the company expects and "acute" shortage of drives and that the manufacturer expects prices to increase. However, there was no information how sharp this increase can be. Both WD and Seagate said that the floods in Thailand have created a problem for the industry that will take several quarters to resolve.

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Douglas Perry was a freelance writer for Tom's Hardware covering semiconductors, storage technology, quantum computing, and processor power delivery. He has authored several books and is currently an editor for The Oregonian/OregonLive.

65 Comments Comment from the forums

xcomvic

Oh wells, just wait until they rebuild and restock, prices will fall again within a few weeks.
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deathengine

Until then, the price gouging will continue!
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AbdullahG

I noticed this on Newegg, though it wasn't all that high. I remember seeing a few $60 HDDs jump to $70 and all the way up to $100.
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bobthemailman

I went on newegg this morning and noticed a 2tb went from 65 to 99 i was shocked. Oh well Just have to wait till the market chills again
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Also an example of the hidden costs of outsourcing. Risk of supply disruptions are rarely factored in when a company makes the decision to outsource, but they can be very expensive, as they are in this case.
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ben850

Luckily I buy HDD's once every few years and can afford to wait this one out.
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right about now would be a good time to move manufacturing back to the USofA for once
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Branden

bought three hitachi 2TB drives from my fav parts shop couple months ago for $100/ea, now listing as $130.
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JeanLuc

xcomvicOh wells, just wait until they rebuild and restock, prices will fall again within a few weeks.
It's going to take more like 6 months to get back to normal.
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littleleo

This is because of the worst flooding in Thailand in 50 years. 60% of all WD drives are made there. Seagate has factories there too but not as much of their production is based there. The biggest problem is a lot of the hard drive component manufacturers are their too. These are the ones the make the drive motors the the other parts that go in to hard drives. It could be 6 months before production is back to normal. Right now its a sellers market, and there is no end in sight right now to the price increases and shortages. Thank god global warming doesn't exisit!
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