Resellers told to brace for HDD shortage

Thai floods could hammer supply chain, warn distributors

Resellers have been warned they could face a shortage of hard-disk drive (HDD) inventory in the coming months, as the flooding in Thailand impacts supply chains.

Dave Stevinson, sales director of distributor VIP Computers, claimed his firm's HDD partners had been in touch yesterday to warn that work at factories and sub-assembly facilities has been disrupted by the floods. Stevinson singled out Western Digital – which he claims manufactures two-thirds of its HDDs in Thailand – Seagate and Hitachi as vendors likely to be worst affected.

The VIP man predicted usual quarterly inventory levels could be down by as much as 20 per cent.

"Seagate relies on several sub-assembly suppliers in Thailand, some of which had factories that were flooded or are shut down due to lack of worker access," he said. "We do not believe the enterprise-class products will be as severely affected as desktop and mobile.

"VIP is working tirelessly to secure sufficient inventory for the channel."

Gerard Marlow, general manager for business development at Hammer, claimed his firm is also expecting HDD inventory levels to feel the squeeze this year.

"Hammer has been made aware of the unavoidable HDD price increases and inevitable stock level decreases as a result of the disaster in Thailand," he said. "In a situation like this, resellers need to ensure they calculate their HDD requirements carefully, and communication between all parties is key. Hammer generally holds good stock volumes of the products affected, and we will continue to be in close contact with vendors to try to ensure the repercussions for customers are as minimal as possible."