The earthquake that hit Japan affected so many different areas, not the least the semiconductor industry, including the harddrive manufacturers. The delivery chain has been ruined and the manufacturers are having a hard time getting back to normal levels before the end of the second quarter.
Texas Instruments and Renesas Electronics that supplies the companies with many of the circuits and components needed has been working aggressively to regain its capacities after having its chains destroyed after the earthquake.
The problem applies to all five companies; Hitachi, Seagate, Western Digital, Samsung and Toshiba, that all say they are unable to deliver the quantites it used to, even though it has taken help from other component makers such as Texas Instruments and Renesas Electronics.
Because of this harddrive prices have gone up with 10-15% with some models in April and whether the trend will continue depends on how fast the component shortage can be solved. Texas Instruments says it expects to ship normal quantities in September månad, and in the meantime it will fill as many orders as possible through its plants in USA and Germany.
Source: Digitimes
