On April 9th, reports indicate that Western Digital has officially sent notices to its clients, informing them of price adjustments for NAND flash and hard drive products.
Western Digital stated that due to the development of artificial intelligence, the demand for high-capacity hard drives continues to rise among major enterprises, resulting in a shortage of both its mechanical hard drives (HDD) and solid-state drives (SSD).
Moreover, the demand for flash memory products has exceeded expectations. Consequently, prices for flash memory and hard drive products will continue to be adjusted this quarter, with some changes taking immediate effect.
Western Digital admits that it will adjust product prices more frequently in response to market changes.
Furthermore, the company indicates that its capacity to handle non-plan orders is quite limited, thus any changes to orders require advance notice.
According to TrendForce's forecast, the tight supply of high-capacity hard drive products may become the main theme for the whole year of 2024. Enterprise SSDs are expected to rise by another 20-25% in the second quarter, while consumer-grade SSDs and eMMC/UFS are expected to increase by 10-15%.
