Shortages set to sour summer sales

A shortage of hard disk drives is predicted to hit the UK channel this summer, as manufacturers start to shift excess inventory from the last two quarters.

James Wickes, MD of UK distributor Ideal Hardware, told PC Dealer that because hard disk drive vendors cut down on production and slashed prices - due to excess inventory problems - manufacturers would not be up to capacity on impending disk drive models.

Major vendors such as Seagate, Western Digital and Quantum, made losses in the quarter ending 31 January 1997, which included restructuring charges associated with cutting output. Asian vendors with cheap product flooded the market, keeping prices down.

Wickes said: 'There is an inventory overhang from last year, but we see it lifting already. Production lines are almost at a standstill. It will take at least another six months to shift gear into new production.'

But Bob Peyton, storage analyst at IDC, disagreed insisting that although the big players had cut back, it would not take long to get back to full capacity.

Kazem Behjat, MD of reseller Roldec Systems, said he had heard rumours of an impending shortage of 3Gb drives 'around June or July', but could not confirm it would hit the UK channel.

Peyton said 'the expectation is that the 3Gb drive will be the big product this summer'.

See feature, page 30.