According to Pulsestacks on April 9th, storage giant Western Digital publicly confirmed on April 8th for the first time that due to the increased demand for high-capacity hard drives from major customers in the AI wave, both its mechanical hard drive (HDD) and solid-state drive (SSD) businesses are experiencing supply shortages.
Western Digital has officially notified its customers that it will adjust the prices of NAND flash memory and hard drive products. Pulsestacks has provided a screenshot as follows:
Western Digital has stated that demand for flash and hard drive products has exceeded expectations, leading to supply constraints. These challenges in the electronics industry supply chain further impact product availability. This quarter, they will continue to adjust prices for flash and hard drive products, with some changes taking effect immediately.
Western Digital has admitted that it will adjust product prices more frequently in response to market changes. Additionally, the company's capacity to handle unplanned demand and orders is quite limited, so any changes to orders require advance notice. They also anticipate that unplanned demand may lead to longer delivery times.
According to Canalys, the tight supply of high-capacity hard disk products is expected to persist into this quarter and could potentially be the dominant theme for the entire year of 2024. Specifically, the firm predicts that hard disk prices will continue to rise in the second quarter of this year, with an expected increase of 5% to 10%.
