Have HDD prices gone up because of shortage?

Abe Olandres Editor-in-chief November 7, 2011 · 1 min read

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The massive flooding in Thailand the other month may have affected the supply of hard disk drives globally and it’s expected that prices of storage devices will increase in the following months.

I have a classmate from high school working for Western Digital in Thailand and have asked for details how the company is really affected and what to expect (apparently, most HDD manufacturers operated in Thailand).

In the same note, I have also been monitoring the prices of HDDs in local market.

While prices of HDD in most local stores have remained stable so far, I’ve noticed they’re all pushing their inventories to include even the old ones (smaller capacities down to 80GB).

However, in some stores, I’ve noticed prices of 1TB HDDs have increased from under Php4k to about Php5k. That translates to about 25% price hike. Haven’t really seen a trend across the entire line but we might soon find out in the next couple of months.

Anybody else noticed the price increases in hard disk drives lately?

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Abe Olandres

Editor-in-chief

Abe is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of YugaTech with over 20 years of experience in the technology industry. He is one of the pioneers of blogging in the country and is considered by many as the Father of Tech Blogging in the Philippines.

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66 Comments

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PublicPasssion · 15 years ago

Yup…it is up. I just bought WD SATA 2 in Sept for about $60. Pre-Black Friday and post still very EXPENSIVE!! Almost triple from cheapest place like Amazon.

Nelson Bryan · 15 years ago

1 TB WD Passport Essential price went up from 5K+ to 9K+. T.T

Cajun · 15 years ago

Just checked, Samsung 1TB, just 2,500, now it’s 3k+.

James · 15 years ago

last month, bought 2TB HDD’s in Gilmore for 3,500
Now its around 4,500-5,000

big jump for the high-capacity drives, the low-end models also had a bit of a price increase. most stores only sell HDD as part of a whole unit, they won’t sell per-piece

Jason Teh · 15 years ago

here is the official word from WD

Dear valued customers:

Octoberâ€™s torrential flooding in Thailand has claimed hundreds of lives, displaced hundreds of thousands of residents and directly and indirectly impacted thousands of businesses. With more than 37,000 employees and manufacturing operations in Thailand, Western Digital’s business is one of those.

The human toll from the flooding is the greatest tragedy. Our highest priority is the well-being of our employees. We are relieved to tell you that all WD employees in Thailand are safe, although many of their lives have been severely impacted. Extensive efforts are underway to provide them with the assistance they need during this difficult time.

WD is deeply embedded in the Thai community and we are profoundly concerned for those who have been affected by the flooding. For the Thai people, family members have been lost, lives uprooted and homes destroyed. Many have been left without food and shelter. You can help.

WD, through the WD Foundation, is making significant contributions and matching donations by its employees on a one-to-one basis to support the recovery effort. Weâ€™ve identified the Thai Red Cross Society as the most effective means of distributing aid where itâ€™s most needed.

Please consider contributing what you can to help the Thai people receive basic living necessities, rebuild their lives and restore their communities by clicking on the Donate Online button at the Thai Red Cross Society web site:

http://english.redcross.or.th/home

At WD we are passionate, dedicated people and are doing everything we can to minimize any disruptions in our service or delivery of our products. We ask that you, as a WD customer, remain patient with us for the next few quarters.

Sincerely,

John Coyne
President and Chief Executive Officer

jonaflormicfren · 15 years ago

I have notice it too when I assembled a new CPU last week, the store said that it is because of high demand. But now, i realized that what you have pointed is another reason.

jonski22 · 15 years ago

it’s Christmas season…pricing are going up no matter what…

sherwood · 15 years ago

Last week I bought a WD Internal HardDrive for Laptop worth P3,400 in Octagon. They say it much become higher compared to last months price that is about 2k+.

Francis Salvador · 15 years ago

Off Topic, but anyway, i’m working as a procurement coordinator for an AV company, and I’ve noticed that Dell in Northern California – Large Enterprise ran out of 146GB SAS 2.5in HDs (for servers), and Zones have about less than 20 HDs. it’s making my job difficult!

dvancleef · 15 years ago

We’ve already been forced to postpone scheduled server purchases due to lack of disk availability.

Christopher · 15 years ago

It might sound crazy but if you need a HDD right now it’s much cheaper to buy it as an external HDD.
Read: http://blog.protonet.info/post/12463758761/save-money-on-hard-drive-disks-thailand-flooding

Welsh · 15 years ago

Just bought 2T HDD from PCX 2 days ago for P5,050.

dan · 15 years ago

toshiba sells their products in crazy prices, may hitachi pa ba? db binili na nga WD? did they maintained their name?

ezme · 15 years ago

toshiba and hitachi have manufacturing facilities here at our country, sadly their market share is not that big..

vince · 15 years ago

The problem with the philippines is AFAIK our electricity prices are now the highest in the region, even higher than japan based on a recent newspaper report. So its a big disincentive for companies. Nuclear power is one possible solution but the masa dont like it

anyway, there are pictures on the net of the WD building flooded. kitang kita ang WD sign sa gilid, and meron pa before photos.

Seagate buildings are not flooded daw but their suppliers’ factories are flooded so they are also affected.

40% daw of world HD production comes from thailand

dvancleef · 15 years ago

That’s incorrect. I compared Tokyo and Manila prices 2 weeks ago and the marginal rate per kwh including taxes for normal residential usage is still more expensive in Tokyo.

XXIX · 15 years ago

“The problem with the philippines is AFAIK our electricity prices are now the highest in the region, even higher than japan based on a recent newspaper report. So its a big disincentive for companies.”

True. I work for an industrial park and this is the primary concern of investors and existing locators. Hopefully, Electric Power Industry Reform Act could help us regarding this.

Kenth · 15 years ago

Yup, electricity price in the Philippines is a big turn off to customers/investors.

The government should look at ways to reduce the price:
– stop “political maneuvering/tactics”
– reduce taxes (gov’t tax, evat, royalty tax) imposed on electricity and resource/supplies used to generate it
– revise EPIRA
– revamp PSALM (instead of generating more money for the gov’t and reduce electricity cost via privatization, it generated more loans/cost to the gov’t jacking up prices further)
– push for optimized/improved performance of electric utilities (reward them for better performance and lower cost; penalize for poor performance and higher cost, etc.)
– other measures …

vince · 15 years ago

France is a huge electricity exporter, and 70% of its electricity comes from nuclear power.

dan · 15 years ago

I hope their smart assed CEO and boards will heavely look and consider cavite, clark, subic or even cebu as their new manufacturing hub, like what INTEL is doing again. Manila shares similar floods but atleast it doesn’t last for 5 months the most is a week max. we have the worst and the most dilapilated airport in the world but atleast we don’t close it out even we have Coupe de’tat or massive civil unrest. Heck you can’t even find honda auto spare parts nowadays

PaTEXT.com · 15 years ago

+1 for this comment. I was thinking the same thing.

razorous · 15 years ago

I was just looking at getting the WD My Book Live, yesterday at Power Mac in MOA, for 2TB cost P8960. Nag increase na kaya yung price na to?

Florence · 15 years ago

I saw stores in SM Manila selling WD 1 TB for Php5,500+. Akala ko normal price yun. Yun pala may shortage na. Haha

Jhay · 15 years ago

Oh shoot! Just when I had made up my mind that I will get a new HD this November to increase my home storage capacity. Pfft.

crazyadmin · 15 years ago

yes, notice ko din, yung sa isang store na pinagchecheck ko ng price.. it has gone up to around P700.. from 2k to around 2,700..

hd · 15 years ago

samsung f3 1tb bought for Php2600 last july, now when i checked tipidpc it went up to Php4000

aron hinanay · 15 years ago

even seagate sore up their prices dut to mose part of theit hdd is made in thailand. terrible.

maybe inventories for rma is also limited so my wd 1tb hdd was still on hold. =(

Anime · 15 years ago

WD Elements 500gb bought for 2500Php, don’t know if it went up or something

froi · 15 years ago

it does. suppliers are not even selling their stocks. prices are up dramatically. some stores maintained their prices but i doubt they can sustain that. they’ll follow what the market says. price up!

dvancleef · 15 years ago

Street prices in Japan on 2TB drives have doubled in the last week.

Benchmark · 15 years ago

well I recently bought 1TB HD at one store in Gilmore…the price is around 3K to 4K. I bought mine for Php2,950 WD, but there are cheaper ones like Hitachi and Samsung that is Php100 less…I think its PC Options.

But I remember months ago (I think July), I bought HD 500gig for Php2,100, as I asked before, if I remember it right, it is now Php2,400.