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We hate to be constantly beating the doomsday drum on the hard drive crisis in Thailand, but Seagate isn’t making any easier to give this a positive spin. According to Chief Executive Officer Stephen J. Luczo, Wall Street is talking nonsense if they think drive production will reach pre-flood as estimated in the summer of 2012. Instead Luczo estimates it will take a full 12 months to bring everything back online, and he expects it to be a difficult road ahead for the entire industry since more than 130 of its suppliers are still under three feet of water.
"It’s going to be very interesting to see who gets drives and who doesn’t," Luczo said, adding that customers are stockpiling large capacity drives in anticipation of shortages, even despite the higher prices. "Some have offered $250 million upfront," he told Bloomberg. Looking 12 months ahead Luczo has also confirmed we are unlikely to see pre-flood pricing for even longer. "People are going to appreciate the complexity of this business," he said.
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yu119995
November 21, 2011 at 9:48am
yu119995 estimates that he will be spending the same amount on SSD's now; thinks this could bring SSD's to the forefront of personal storage.
meangenedrlove
November 20, 2011 at 9:22pm
I thought it was Thailand that flooded and is still flooded. Did Taiwan flood too? Just wondering...I spent a week in Thailand last month before the flooding got really bad in Bangkok and I haven't heard anything about flooding in Taiwan.
ocnier
November 20, 2011 at 11:51pm
No you are correct it was Thailand only, but Taiwan is also a main staging area for other plants that are trying to keep up with production when Thailand went offline. This just sucks all around. Hard drive prices are crazy right now.
d3v
November 21, 2011 at 3:46am
I think the author mixed up Taiwan with Thailand. Or is it Thailand with Taiwan :P
livebriand
November 20, 2011 at 5:43pm
Well, at least this makes SSDs look more attractive. Maybe SSD prices will start coming down then, and demand for them will rise, and HD manufacturers will be in even bigger trouble.
