Seagate released its Q2 2012 (fiscal year) results yesterday, and not surprisingly the company had some statements to make about the effect the Thailand flooding had on its business. The company acknowledged that hard drive shortages will most likely continue throughout the calendar year of 2012, with supply trailing demand by about 150 million units by the end of 2012. From an industry-wide perspective, Seagate said that 119 million drives were shipped overall, short of estimated demand for 175 million drives. These shortages have led to Seagate observing some shifts in how customers order its products — the company is making more long-term deals to lock down pricing, with some deals running multiple years, which is a trend that Seagate hasn’t observed before.
Seagate’s hard drive shortage from Thailand floods expected to continue throughout 2012
Seagate acknowledged that hard drive shortages will most likely continue throughout the calendar year of 2012, with supply trailing demand by about 150 million units by the end of 2012.
Seagate acknowledged that hard drive shortages will most likely continue throughout the calendar year of 2012, with supply trailing demand by about 150 million units by the end of 2012.
Despite the flooding, Seagate didn’t have such a bad quarter — the company shipped 47 million units in the quarter, down four percent from the year-ago quarter, and pulled in $3.2 billion in revenue (up 18 percent year-over-year). Seagate actually made out better than some of its competitors in the flooding; its factories weren’t directly hit, but it is dealing with shortages from component suppliers which has hurt the overall business. It sounds like this will be an ongoing issue for the hard drive industry for the rest of the year — hopefully consumers won’t have to pay too much of a premium on storage in 2012.
