As floods in Thailand have seriously impacted the hard drive supply chain, Western Digital recently notified its distributors in Taiwan that the company will not distribute any hard drive supplies to Taiwan in November. Samsung Electronics is also not supplying any hard drives to Taiwan in November and will shift shipments for the use of its own-brand PC products, according to sources from channel retailers.

Currently, channel supplies can only last until mid-November, the sources noted.

With expectations of a supply shortage, PC brand vendors and channel retailers are already competing to fill their hard drive inventories. Meanwhile, hard drive makers have also set up a strategy to reduce their supply to retail channels, preventing their brand clients from purchasing hard drives from retail channels, while also increasing their bargaining power over brand vendors over the next two quarters.

The increase in hard drive prices has also impacted consumer demand in the PC DIY market with sales of motherboards and processors being affected.

Source:digitimes