Two of the top five hard-drive makers are reporting that they are finding it difficult to get the parts to make their gear following the Japanese earthquake.
According to Digitimes, the after shocks of the earthquake is expected to persist in May with two of the top-5 makers - Western Digital and Hitachi Global Storage Technologies finding that it is difficult to find parts.
The hard drive industry's upstream chip suppliers Texas Instruments and Renesas Electronics have been using Chinese burns on suppliers to make sure they get enough, but sources from hard drive makers estimate that the supply gap of the hard drive industry will still have difficulties to be fully recovered in the second quarter.
Primary chip suppliers in Japan mostly had their production lines devastated by the earthquake, while the makers' secondary suppliers do not have enough capacities to fully cover the supply gap, the hard drive's price started to have a little rise in early April with some models have already seen a price increase of 10-15 per cent, Digitimes said..
Texas Instruments already pointed out that everything would be sorted out by September.
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Nick Farell
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