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deepred

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#92138 27-Oct-2011 16:22
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In case word hasn't got out yet...

WD PROVIDES UPDATE ON EFFECT OF THAILAND FLOODS:PRIMARY MANUFACTURING SITE FLOODED, SECOND SITE AT RISK;SIGNIFICANT IMPACT ON DECEMBER QUARTER

IRVINE, Calif.-Oct. 17, 2011-Western Digital Corp. (NYSE: WDC) today announced that it has extended the suspension of its operations in Thailand. Over the weekend, rising water penetrated the Bang Pa-in Industrial Park flood defenses, inundating the company's manufacturing facilities there and submerging some equipment. At the other company manufacturing location in Thailand, Navanakorn Industrial Park, the park flood defenses were breached on Monday morning local time and water has begun to flow into the park threatening the company's facilities there. All WD employees in Thailand remain safe.

The company's other facilities in Malaysia, Singapore and the U.S. are fully operational. The company now expects that the flooding of its Thailand facilities, combined with flood damage to the company's supply chain in Thailand, will have significant impact on the company's overall operations and its ability to meet customer demand for its products in the December quarter. The company will provide further updates on the situation on its investment community conference call on Wednesday, October 19, 2011.

About WD
WD, one of the storage industry's pioneers and long-time leaders, provides products and services for people and organizations that collect, manage and use digital information. The company designs and produces reliable, high-performance hard drives and solid state drives that keep users' data accessible and secure from loss. Its advanced technologies are configured into applications for client and enterprise computing, embedded systems and consumer electronics, as well as its own consumer storage and home entertainment products.

WD was founded in 1970. The company's storage products are marketed to leading OEMs, systems manufacturers, selected resellers and retailers under the Western Digital® and WD® brand names. Visit the Investor section of the company's Website (www.westerndigital.com) to access a variety of financial and investor information.

This press release contains forward-looking statements concerning the impact of flooding in Thailand on WD's and its suppliers' operations. The foregoing forward-looking statements are based on WD's current expectations and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements, including: uncertainties concerning the extent of damage to the company's and suppliers' facilities and equipment; uncertainties about the timeframe for the flood waters receding and the restoration of operations and associated costs with such restoration; the effectiveness of flood prevention efforts at the Navanakorn Industrial Park; uncertainties concerning the availability and cost of commodity materials and specialized product components that WD does not make internally; actions by competitors; and other risks and uncertainties listed in WD's recent Form 10-K filed with the SEC August 12, 2011, to which your attention is directed. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof, and WD undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances.




"I regret to say that we of the F.B.I. are powerless to act in cases of oral-genital intimacy, unless it has in some way obstructed interstate commerce." — J. Edgar Hoover

"Create a society that values material things above all else. Strip it of industry. Raise taxes for the poor and reduce them for the rich and for corporations. Prop up failed financial institutions with public money. Ask for more tax, while vastly reducing public services. Put adverts everywhere, regardless of people's ability to afford the things they advertise. Allow the cost of food and housing to eclipse people's ability to pay for them. Light blue touch paper." — Andrew Maxwell


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wellygary
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  #538225 27-Oct-2011 16:52
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I've already noticed the some of the really good "specials" on WD externals have been slowly disappearing from retail channels and prices have been creeping up.. more to come I guess....



Zeon
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  #538229 27-Oct-2011 16:57
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Lol go take a look at the price changes for hard drives on Ascent. I'm buying SSDs now as they are only slightly more expensive at the low end!




Speedtest 2019-10-14


Niel
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  #538355 27-Oct-2011 21:29
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Pricespy seems to suggest that all brands hard drives have slowly increased, but still only maybe 1%.




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timmmay
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  #538530 28-Oct-2011 09:18
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Prices have gone up around 20% at Ascent so far. I put a hard drive in my cart Wednesday, came back Thursday, and it'd gone up by $20. The prices could double or triple in the short term. Since it affects component suppliers, not just WD, all hard drive prices will go up.

If you need storage, buy it now.

Kyanar
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  #538576 28-Oct-2011 10:35
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I received an email from Eden claiming that hard disk prices (all brands) had gone up 100%. I assume they meant at wholesale since the retail prices haven't quite gotten there yet, but since apparently Thailand's plants produce 50% of the global supply I can see that doubling happening and soon.

kobiak
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  #538579 28-Oct-2011 10:44
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this is so pure speculation. but I don't see these prices stay for longer than few weeks. HDD manufactures pushed to the limits by SSD producers and prices close to equal would mean less demand for HDDs.




helping others at evgenyk.nz


Zeon
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  #538580 28-Oct-2011 10:46
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Those floodwaters are only going up around Bangkok. There are other producers there too like intel but not sure if they are affected (and of course the prawn farms!).

Was in PBTech today and HDD prices have gone up by around 100% in the last week apparently. Our US supplier has increased prices around 30% and they have no stock with a whole swathe of drives.


Will only be going up from here too so if you don't need space look @ SSDs now.




Speedtest 2019-10-14


 
 
 
 

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timmmay
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  #538585 28-Oct-2011 10:50
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kobiak: this is so pure speculation. but I don't see these prices stay for longer than few weeks. HDD manufactures pushed to the limits by SSD producers and prices close to equal would mean less demand for HDDs.


The estimate to get the factories back online is 2-4 months, I think. When supply goes down and demand stays the same, prices rise.

Other parts of the world may be able to pick up the slack, but as I understand it so components are made in Thailand that are used worldwide.

kobiak
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  #538592 28-Oct-2011 10:57
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@timmmay and HDD manufactures would need to keep their market share over SSDs and thus I see them selling HDDs at loss to keep prices down for the end user, so they won't go over SSDs :)

sure it won't happen overnight, as soon as shortage of HDDs at warehouses would be solved - prices would be normal, but surely "high" speculative prices won't stay for long.




helping others at evgenyk.nz


timmmay
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  #538594 28-Oct-2011 11:01
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HDDs have gone up from about 8c/GB to 23c/GB in the past few days. SSDs are $4/GB or so. There's no way HDDs can reach SSD prices.

I doubt any manufacturer will sell at a loss, they'd be better off closing down. The demand is still there, they may even more more profitable during the shortages. They're businesses. Businesses exist to make money.

nickb800
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  #538613 28-Oct-2011 11:30
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timmmay: HDDs have gone up from about 8c/GB to 23c/GB in the past few days. SSDs are $4/GB or so. There's no way HDDs can reach SSD prices.

I doubt any manufacturer will sell at a loss, they'd be better off closing down. The demand is still there, they may even more more profitable during the shortages. They're businesses. Businesses exist to make money.


+1

Theres no point in running SSDs as a loss leader, everyone knows how awesome they are, they just cant afford/justify them at current prices

Niel
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  #538844 28-Oct-2011 18:40
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Samsung makes their drives in Korea. Western Digital has a factory in Malaysia. There are other countries making hard drives. I can't be bother listing others, but shops are using excuses to bump up prices. Computer shops run on such tight mark-up that this small localised event is helping them cash in. There was little mention of the effect of the Japan tsunami on e.g. Hitachi and Panasonic prices.

Especially after the global financial "crisis" when some electronic components had lead times of greater than a year (we had some quoted almost 2 years!), manufacturers had to find ways of protecting them from supply shortage and focus on multi-sourcing components for making their products. Our company redesigned some products to reduce single-sourcing.




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Ragnor
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  #539098 29-Oct-2011 21:40
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Look at the price history for the 2TB WD Green 
http://pricespy.co.nz/product.php?pu=864268 

.. and the Seagate 2TB Green
http://pricespy.co.nz/product.php?pu=763489 

sbiddle
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  #539112 29-Oct-2011 22:34
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Ragnor: Look at the price history for the 2TB WD Green 
http://pricespy.co.nz/product.php?pu=864268 

.. and the Seagate 2TB Green
http://pricespy.co.nz/product.php?pu=763489 


And best of all they're only $129 at DSE on special! It's not very often a special at DSE is actually a bargain!




timmmay
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  #539297 30-Oct-2011 15:13
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I just paid $194 for a WD Green 2.5TB drive. Not too bad.

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