[News] Western Digital Customer Letter Confirms HDD Supply Shortage! NAND Flash and Hard Drive Prices Continue to Rise

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The demand for large-capacity HDD products driven by the artificial intelligence market has caused overall HDD prices to surge. According to the latest updates, American memory giant Western Digital confirmed for the first time on April 8th that there is a supply shortage for both HDD and SSD. They issued formal customer letters notifying of ongoing price adjustments for NAND Flash and hard drive products.

Western Digital stated that the demand for both flash memory and hard drive products has exceeded expectations, leading to supply constraints. These challenges in the electronics industry’s supply chain further affect availability. This quarter, they will continue to adjust prices for flash memory and hard drive products, with some changes taking immediate effect.

These updates apply across the company’s entire product portfolio, and Western Digital indicated that pricing adjustments will be frequent in the future. Additionally, the company’s ability to handle unplanned demand and orders is quite limited, so any order changes require early notification. They also anticipate that unplanned demand may lead to extended delivery lead times.

TechNews’ report further point out that, combining current market reports, the overall price increase for HDDs has accumulated between 10% to 20% from the third quarter of 2023 to the first quarter of this year, due to memory manufacturers implementing production reduction strategies aimed at quantity-based pricing.

Industry sources cited by TechNews’ report anticipate that the tight supply situation for large-capacity HDD products will continue into this quarter and potentially extend throughout the year. Specifically, HDD prices are expected to continue rising in the second quarter of this year, with an anticipated increase of 5% to 10%.

As per TrendForce’s  data for 3Q23, Samsung maintained its position as the top global NAND flash memory manufacturer, commanding a significant market share of 31.4%. Following closely, SK Group secured the second position with a 20.2% market share. Western Digital occupied the third position with a market share of 16.9%, while Japan’s Kioxia held a 14.5% market share.

Read more

• [News] AI Market Growth Rescues HDD, Driving Half-Year Price Surge of 20%
• [News] SSD Prices Keep Rising

(Photo credit: Western Digital)