Disk drive shipments rebound from Thai floods

By Lucas Mearian

BANGKOK:-- A year after a flooding disaster in Thailand took out a large portion of hard disk drive production, the industry has fully recovered with shipments to the computer market expected to hit a record level this year.

According to market research firm IHS iSuppli, hard drive sales have rebounded, driven by demand in the enterprise market as well as the upcoming arrival of the Windows 8 operating system next month.

HDD shipments in 2012 for the overall computer market, including PCs, are forecast to reach 524 million drives, up 4.3 percent percent from 502.5 million units last year, according to an IHS report.

Hard drive prices, however, will remain high, and prices are not expected to fall to pre-flood levels until 2014, IHS stated in a report earlier this year.

In the wake of the flooding in Thailand last year, hard drive prices rose to an average of $66 in the fourth quarter of 2011, a 28% leap from the $51 average price in the previous quarter, according to IHS.

The average price held steady at $66 in the first quarter of 2012 and is expected to decline only marginally, to about $65, in the second quarter.

While the number of hard drives shipping this year will top an all-time record, shipments are expected continue to rise briskly over the next four years. In 2016, hard drive shipments will hit 575.1 million units, IHS said.

“The forecast includes drive shipments only to the PC computer segment, which includes client hard disks for desktops and notebooks, and enterprise drives for servers and storage systems. The forecast does not include drive shipments for other markets, such as in the automotive industry, or for external hard drives or DVR devices.

Full story: http://www.pcworld.c...l#tk.nl_mwdaily

-- PCWorld 2012-09-29

Fair enough for prices to remain high for recoupment for damages to manufacturing.

Here in the US, prices are just about back to normal, with 2TB hitting the sweet spot and 3TB drives quickly being the cost / GB winner.

Fair enough for prices to remain high for recoupment for damages to manufacturing.

Forgive me for being a naive old fool, but I see no fairness whatsoever.

An ethical, or well managed, company recoups losses from its insurance company. The insurance company foots the bill NOT the customer.

Aah. Silly, silly me. Now I understand.

TiT with no insurance required. A price hike is the way to go not profits wasted on silly insurance.

not for long. flood 2012 is a month away...

Fair enough for prices to remain high for recoupment for damages to manufacturing.

Following that train of thinking, it also is fair that drive manufacturers return the large government 'flood subsidies' they pocketed, don't you think? ("Pocketed" is not loosely used...).

• The thing the floods of 2011 in Thailand affected in relation to hard drives worldwide was not the fully assembled drive, but the motor in the hard drive. With 90% of all hard drive motors coming from Ayutthaya, and those plants being flooded out the new supply of hard drive motors was what affected the price of hard drives from all manufactorers worldwide. Without the motor being manufactorered stocks of motors ran out, and the prices went up as the hard drive manufactorers supplies dwindled.
  

TiT with no insurance required. A price hike is the way to go not profits wasted on silly insurance.

Actually a more correct way to put it would be:

TIT, fully insured.. Get the cash from Insurance but hike the price anyway: now you have a good excuse and double bill

TiT with no insurance required. A price hike is the way to go not profits wasted on silly insurance.

Actually a more correct way to put it would be:

TIT, fully insured.. Get the cash from Insurance but hike the price anyway: now you have a good excuse and double bill

See! I told you I was a naive old fool - now do you believe me?

Prices aren't as good as they were, but I see I can buy a Seagate 7200 Rpm sata 6.0 2tb for $100 including shipping. Not too bad.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148834

Prices aren't as good as they were, but I see I can buy a Seagate 7200 Rpm sata 6.0 2tb for $100 including shipping. Not too bad.

http://www.newegg.co...N82E16822148834

Not shipping to Thailand and not possible customs charges, whereas you can spend $10 more and get a WD 2TB here:

http://www.jib.co.th/web/index.php/product/readProduct/6719/9/index.html

I recently bought a 500MB wireless HDD for backups. $US200 shipped in US. I hid it in another room where I had a power outlet. My hope is that if I had a burglary and lost my computers, I would at least have a current image of the system drives. Windows 7 (at least my version - Ultimate) has a built in backup utility that will image the drive on a predefined schedule and I do it every night. I partitioned the disk into 4 drives and backup 4 computers on it.

I did have to install a wireless expansion card in my desktop and am now running it totally wireless to the router and the wireless disk, but it was all easy.

I have just one physical disk in my computer for my system drive so that the data doesn't get to be too much. Everything else which I could afford to lose is on separate internal and external physical disks to keep my images as small as possible. Right now my system disk is at about only 80MB which includes documents, pictures, etc.

I really like this setup.