Seagate Believes HDD Supply Disruption to Continue in 2012

[drwho1]

[citation][nom]CaedenV[/nom]Considering that it is 2012, and there is still a shortage I would say that their prognostications are correct lolCan't wait for my 2TB drives to get back under $100 each... I'm really hurting for a home server, if only I didn't need 4 of the damn things to do it right.[/citation]

WD 2TB hard drives were $70 before this happened.

I personally will wait until all this nonsense is over, and then probably wait some more for the 5TB hard drives to be around $100 each, then get at least 6 of them for my tower.

Then I want to move my current 6 2TB drives into a NAS.

 

[theJ]

[citation][nom]rottingsheep[/nom]http://guru3d.com/news/seagate-see [...] ly-crisis/Seagate is laughing[/citation]

Because they manufactured the HDD's for the same cost as pre-flood prices. But since WD can't make demand, people have to buy more Seagates. Seagate doesn't have enough drives to make up for WD's shortcoming, so the price goes up. Meanwhile, it still cost them the same to produce, but they can sell at higher margins because of the market.

It's a win for Seagate.

Then on the other side of the fence. WD's costs to produce went up. Way up. In a vacuum, their prices would be higher than they are now, but they can't charge anymore because Seagate can afford to price their units lower. Hence they decline in profit.

Economics is a beautiful thing.

 

[A Bad Day]

If there was a HDD manufacturer that wasn't impacted at all by the flood, they would've seen their profits at least double.

 

[jaquith]

No Consumer wins with an Oligopoly. Mergers suck and we all get screwed, the 'flood' was all the fuel needed.

I said last year in the forum and to TH/BoM that my expectations of prices to stay high through 2012 then, I was right. So my crystal ball also predicts a slow return to 'acceptable' prices even though 2013, but no $60~$65 1TB HDD's for a long time.

Maybe the high prices will spark investors into new start-up's, and maybe they'll have enough foresight to avoid: earthquake, flood, coastlines, volcanoes, hurricane/typhoon -- zones, or other risky sites. 😉

 

[mhughes81]

That's funny, because I just read the linked article yesterday that state Q1 demand for HDD's is historically low. http://channelnomics.com/2012/01/26/hard-drive-prices-beginning-subside/

 

[back_by_demand]

The impact increased the average unit cost for Seagate by $2.50.

Really?
...
Then why does a 2Tb drive that used to cost me £50 now cost over £100? Supply chain shouldn't be compounding the additonal cost and if they do it is blatant profiteering.

 

[TeraMedia]

I just hope I don't have a drive failure in the next six month at least. Replacement costs are brutal. And I'm extremely wary of the external-drive-product offerings, the refurb offerings, and the low-capacity new-product offerings. How old is a 250 GB, 3.5" drive, anyway? What's the MTBF on a refurb? And what will I find when I crack open an external drive product like a WD Passport or whatever?

@mhughes81: of COURSE demand is low... for 1 TB drives at $160 each! We slid up on the price curve, and down on the demand curve as a result.

 

[back_by_demand]

Actually, the extra cost may be $2.50, the additional $47.50 on top of that is going into a special fund to buy sandbags.

 

[garyshome]

I bought 7 tera's before the flood. Just lucky I guess. Got em at a great price also.

 

[teodoreh]

Why on earth laptops prices remain the same or get low while hard disk prices went up, up to 200%?
Oh, those companies have contracts, and the rest of us eat shit. I just hope a cheap SSD evolution to wiped them off the map once and for all...

 

[mhughes81]

[citation][nom]TeraMedia[/nom]mhughes81: of COURSE demand is low... for 1 TB drives at $160 each! We slid up on the price curve, and down on the demand curve as a result.[/citation]

Oh I know, but since demand is crazy low, how long can these companies keep prices up? If the demand isn't there, supply surpasses demand. I just don't see how these inflated prices can last until 2013 imo.

 

[beayn]

[citation][nom]alidan[/nom]they increased it 10% due to them being the only real choice, they were effected though, just had most of their manufacture areas out of the flood[/citation]

Seagate increased their prices 10% but wholesalers increased the prices well over 50%. It's the wholesalers who are price gouging, not Seagate.

 

[katfishgr]

Their cost increase of $2.50 per unit is not what raised current retail prices. Supply was severely interupted. Economics people ... lower supply, high demand = higher price.

 

[warezme]

Stop buying HD's until the prices go back to what they were. They will be forced to drop since their backlog will start to grow, regardless of what natural or in this case man made event occured.

 

[__-_-_-__]

title is wrong "seagate belies they can still suck even more money from the consumer giving the thailand floods excuse."

 

[dark_lord69]

And if they could have it thier way it would never end.

 

[51l3n5t]

[citation][nom]pjmelect[/nom]That's a very low profit margin for such a high turn over, is that right?[/citation]

17% sounds pretty good to me

 

[cybersans]

they (seagate & western digital) need extra money so that they can build factory on the tibet range
thats why they still not dropping the price. 😉

welcome to the world of capitalism. makes more money and lets the idiots (who buys) suffers!

 

[Tavo_Nova]

haiz in my place 1 seagate 32mb cache 1tb hdd = 130$ US

 

[bartholomew]

[citation][nom]__-_-_-__[/nom]title is wrong "seagate belies they can still suck even more money from the consumer giving the thailand floods excuse."[/citation]

lol.
who knows how much stock they lost?😉