Western Digital management have confirmed that Australia will be spared in the short term from a pending shortage in hard drives due to current stock on hand and the in transit shipments of drives that left the Companies flood hit factory in Thailand before it was closed down. Also set to be hit is Seagate.

Western Digital management have confirmed that Australia will be spared in the short term from a pending shortage in hard drives due to current stock on hand and the in transit shipments of drives that left the Companies flood hit factory in Thailand before it was closed down. Also set to be hit is Seagate.

According to Simon Whitford the local subsidiary had already ordered their Xmas shipments of drives and TV media centres prior to the Companies factory in Thailand being hit by the floods that saw both the Seagate and Western Digital factories badly damaged.  

Whiteford said “In the short term we should have enough stock as we have good stock on hand and we already had large shipments on the water prio0r to the factory being hit”.

Both Seagate and Western Digital late this week that continued flooding in Thailand was worsening shortages.

There would be a ‘significant impact,” Seagate said, and it expected this to last over multiple quarters.

CRN in the USA said that around 25 percent of hard drives are made in Thailand and there could see significant shortages among traditional PCs. A knock-on effect could lead to increased prices both for PCs and aftermarket drives and, in extreme cases, delayed models as companies wait to get enough stock. Some may also make aggressive orders to book a guaranteed supply, possibly creating problems for smaller PC builders.

The expected shortage could magnify problems for computers. Windows PC makers are already seeing slow sales growth and in some cases may have to contend with the inability to make already conservative expectations.

Apple has warned that it might be affected as well, although it may be the best positioned to mitigate the loss. Its relative entry-level MacBook Air uses entirely flash-based storage, often made well away from Thailand by Samsung and Toshiba. The iPad has been denting traditional PCs and again uses only flash storage, giving it little trouble on the market.