Hard Disk pricing is set to raise again

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Esquire

Esquire representative
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Hi All

This is inform you that pricing on Hard disk drives are setup to raise again due to a worldwide shortage that was caused by major floods in Thailand last week, This has forced several manufacturing plants to temporary shut down operations.

Thailand produces about 60% of the world Hard disk drives and the shutdown will be mean shortages and price increases

If you can get your hands on Hard disk drives buy as many as you can as it is unlikely that pricing will come down anytime soon , according to our vendors it may take up to 8 months before we see the situation going back to normal.

This has happen once before several years ago with Ram when prices shot up almost 200% due a fire at a factory also somewhere in the east.
 
FML this is the last thing I need now, have to buy many drives.

Esquire said:
This has happen once before several years ago with Ram when prices shot up almost 200% due a fire at a factory also somewhere in the east.
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Can we please have 1 last special before the prices increase?
 
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Gnome said:
FML this is the last thing I need now, have to buy many drives.



Can we please have 1 last special before the prices increase?
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@Gnome , just to let you know one distributor just bought 100 x Seagate 2TB drives from us this morning @R749.00 as we apparently the only ones that have stock as our stocks arrived last week

The distributor was telling me that they only expecting stocks in two weeks’ time , I spoke to one of our suppliers in UK and they telling me that many they don’t expect to get stocks in until first week of January 2012, So it is getting critical.

To do a special on Hard disk drives will be crazy because if we run out we will have to wait over a month to do replenishments and at higher pricing, so trust me when I tell you buy now at whatever price you get now as next week pricing is going to be much higher.
 
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Looks like they already increased in some places
 
Esquire said:
To do a special on Hard disk drives will be crazy because if we run out we will have to wait over a month to do replenishments and at higher pricing, so trust me when I tell you buy now at whatever price you get now as next week pricing is going to be much higher.
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I understand your point.

I actually wanted 5x 3TB drives but without the special price of last week it is a bit steep. Thanks anyway for the explenation.

Guess I'll have to ride out this disaster and upgrade my NAS next year :(
 
wow, and I was upset when I paid 699 on Tuesday...
 
Thanks for letting us know...

But alas I got enough hard drives, time to delete all my old collection TV episodes (which i will never watch again) . and make space again.
 
Dan C said:
Thanks for letting us know...

But alas I got enough hard drives, time to delete all my old collection TV episodes (which i will never watch again) . and make space again.
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Same here, it's a terrible thing to do but it has to be done :(, sigh.
 
Can't delete. :( Got 2 more drives at Esquire yesterday to last me through to next year.
 
Does anyone else feel like these are opportunistic price increases?

I'm reading online that hard-drive sales aren't exactly at an all time high (world wide). Hard-drive sales is a cut-throat business, anyone who thinks otherwise need only look at the amount of companies in the business that have closed down.

I can't be the only person who is thinking of "waiting" it out, but how do these companies survive when drive sales go down the drain?
 
Gnome said:
Does anyone else feel like these are opportunistic price increases?

I'm reading online that hard-drive sales aren't exactly at an all time high (world wide). Hard-drive sales is a cut-throat business, anyone who thinks otherwise need only look at the amount of companies in the business that have closed down.

I can't be the only person who is thinking of "waiting" it out, but how do these companies survive when drive sales go down the drain?
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It's not an opportunistic increase, it's simply a case of supply and demand. If supply decreases and demand remains unchanged, then it leads to higher price and lower quantity.

Hard drive sales are still increasing, quarter 2 is up 4% over the first quarter. 167 million drives were shipped during second quarter of 2011. (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/09/08/isuppli_q2_hdd_sales/)

Eventually hard drive sales will start to decline, eventually, but right now the demand is increasing and the factories are literally under water, so nothing more can be expected other than a price hike.
 
South_Bit said:
It's not an opportunistic increase, it's simply a case of supply and demand. If supply decreases and demand remains unchanged, then it leads to higher price and lower quantity.
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What you say is true however in this case the manufacturer sold the stock at price X, the supplier then got wind of the price increase and pre-emptively increased prices before buying the drives at price Y.

I don't blame them or slam them for it, who wouldn't do it, it is still opportunistic however.

The demand increased because of the news that drive prices *might* increase. However the prices have now increased even before the drives that are currently in circulation have been sold.

The shortage hasn't hit us yet, it was artificially created at this point in time. WD stated publicly that they have at least 5 day worth of supply in their various chains?

It is the same situation as these petrol scares where there is going to be a petrol problem and then nothing happens except that we cannot get petrol because of the scare.

I actually feel bad for WD, if you read between the lines this is going to hurt them very badly, especially if Seagate don't actually hike their prices. They could lose significant market share and profits.

South_Bit said:
Hard drive sales are still increasing, quarter 2 is up 4% over the first quarter. 167 million drives were shipped during second quarter of 2011. (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/09/08/isuppli_q2_hdd_sales/)
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I didn't make that statement I stated in my orignal post that is what I read, furthermore it is Q3 at this point. The article I read said that drive sales aren't at an all time high at this point in time.

South_Bit said:
Eventually hard drive sales will start to decline, eventually, but right now the demand is increasing and the factories are literally under water, so nothing more can be expected other than a price hike.
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Two factories are underwater, WD and Toshiba, Seagate is at this point not affected. That also forms part of my reason that the price hike is opportunistic. Either Seagate are increasing it to profit on the floods or Esquire is increasing it even though the Seagate factories are still operational.

If Seagate were to lower their prices now (or even just keep them the same), WD would take a serious financial hit.
 
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Received this from one of our European HDD suppliers ...

I thought I’d let you know if you don’t already that due to floods in Thailand the HDD market is going to feel a huge constraint over this next quarter. All drive manufacturers have already increased pricing and supply will be limited.

WD : Report they will face constraint during the whole of this quarter due to flooding around their factory in Thailand. Around 60% of all their product comes from here, so expect shortages.

Seagate : Factory's are NOT in the flood zone, but some of their component suppliers are. Do not predict immediate impact, but if WD are short, Seagate will face an increase in demand and the channel may feel the pain.

Hitachi : Facing problems across the board due to the floods and are currently not shipping any product out of their manufacturing plants in Asia. They haven't given us anymore info at this stage.

Toshiba : are not sure on the impacts as of yet, but will update us over the coming days. Toshiba have confirmed they will not be shipping as many drives into the Channel and have felt effect as their factory is next to WD’s.
 
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