Storage Solutions Western Digital resumes HDD production in Thailand

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Western Digital has started making PC hard drives again in Thailand. In a press release this week, the company announced that it had resumed operations in one of its Thailand buildings after massive flooding in that country caused Western Digital to shut down its manufacturing operations. The building in question was in six feet of water just six weeks ago. The plant reopened about a week ahead of schedule, according to the statement.

Yet another Western Digital production facility in Thailand is still under two feet of water. The company said that plant will be pumped dry within 10 days, after which Western Digital will decontaminate the facility and start its refurbishment.

Even though it has started making hard drives again in Thailand, Western Digital says that the current hard drive shortages due to the floods is still expected to continue for the next several months. It estimates that the company will produce a total of 120 million hard drives for the fourth quarter of 2011. However, Western Digital estimates that demand for its hard drives will be between 170 million to 180 million units for the same time period.

While more hard drive plants will continue to come back online, it's clear that shortages will continue for some time and as a result prices for the few remaining hard drives will be much higher than normal.
 
Lots of industry observers have stated It could take between nine months and two years for hard drive production to return to normal. Hard drive prices are not going to return to happy times so soon.
 
Source of the main post.

Thailand Flood Recovery Effort:

"The passion, perseverance, ingenuity and execution exhibited by the WD team has been extraordinary and enabled us to make substantial progress in partially restoring our operations in Thailand, well in advance of our earliest expectations when the floods hit," said John Coyne, president and chief executive officer of WD. "Much work remains to be done but we couldn't be more pleased with the effort and results thus far, including tremendous support from our supply partners and strategic customers."

Specifically, the company indicated it:

Re-started production of hard drives this week in one of its buildings in Bang Pa-in (BPI), Thailand, one week ahead of internal schedules. This facility had been submerged in some six feet of water since October 15, the estate was pumped dry on November 17, main power was restored on November 26 and production restarted November 30;

Has removed all submerged slider manufacturing equipment from the BPI facilities for assessment, decontamination and refurbishment and has commenced decontamination and restoration of its remaining buildings in BPI;

Expects to recommence head slider production in BPI in the March 2012 quarter (Q3 FY'12) and also begin production in a new WD slider fab location in Penang, Malaysia, in the same time frame; and

The company's other Thailand hard drive facilities at Navanakorn remain under approximately two feet of water. The industrial estate is expected to be pumped dry within ten days at which point the work of decontamination and refurbishment will commence.
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Thursday, December 01, 2011
 
It is quite good to hear , i wanted to buy a 2TB internal in January but not with the current prices [ especially when i had bought my last on for 4k only ]

Hopefully bu July.
 
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