PRESS RELEASE
Dave Stevinson, sales director from VIP Computers commented on the flooding in Thailand which is currently impacting HDD factories:
"Yesterday we were informed by our HDD suppliers that severe flooding in Thailand has impacted HDD factories as well as many sub-assembly factories in Thailand - the impact of the flood will have a severe impact on supply as 1) factories are damaged or 2) workers cannot reach factories. WD produces 60% of its HDD's in Thailand - their plant is currently shut down.
Hitachi manufactures a good portion of their mobile (2.5" ) HDD's at a plant in Thailand - this plant was severely impacted.
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. We do not believe the Enterprise class products will be as severely affected as Desktop and Mobile.
Bottom line, the WW HDD supply this quarter could be affected by as much as 20% or close to 30M units (out of a TAM of 170M units). This is potentially worse than the Japan disaster in March.
VIP is working tirelessly to secure sufficient inventory for the channel."
