Suppliers of hard disk drives (HDDs) have lowered inventory levels from 20-25 days to 10-15 days due to weak demand, according to industry sources. The decreased inventory volumes will last until the end of November or the beginning of December, and subsequent global supply may be short because the serious flooding in Thailand, the world's largest production base of HDD components and HDDs, has disrupted production, according to the sources.

Western Digital, Seagate Technology, Hitachi Global Storage Technologies and Toshiba as well as HDD motor maker Nidec, magnetic pick-up head maker TDK, HDD component maker Min Aik Technology and HDD PCBA maker Cal-Comp Electronics have factories in Thailand. The supply chain has been impacted by the flooding and supply will not be able to reach a normal level over the next six weeks, the sources pointed out

Source:digitimes