Floods In Thailand: PC Manufacturer Crisis

Following the severe floods that hit Thailand in October, numerous hard drive factories had to call a halt to production and this has resulted in a real lack of drives on the market. The repercussions now look likely to impact on PC manufacturers, in particular HP and Dell.

Last October, Thailand suffered violent floods leading to the death of over 500 people and having a significant impact on hard drive production. Around 40% of the world's HDDs are made in Thailand and supply problems are soon going to make themselves felt with PC manufacturers.

According to Trefis, PC manufacturers could lose up to USD 5bn, with world number one, HP, seeing a deficit of USD 1.1bn as a result of the lack of hard drives. With a market share of 12%, Dell is also likely to be hit.

Intel has also been affected by the floods and recently announced a USD 1bn revision of its forecasts for the 4th quarter of 2011.

Factories have announced that production will be affected into the first quarter of 2012, with things getting back to normal in the course of the new year.

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