A look at the situation in the industry for the hard disk drives production may be different. Some sources claim that prices could temporarily jump down in December, while others believe that we have to wait until June next year. Producers themselves are not yet able to assess flood damage . Someone already carries equipment from Thailand to other countries or transferring production to safer areas of the country. Some of the equipment is still under water.
Seagate's CEO has admitted that the industry is unlikely to fully recover from the effects of flooding by the end of 2012, and all the other forecasts are too optimistic. Seagate itself has suffered from the disaster to a minimal extent, as the factory of the company were not flooded, and property of people in Thailand has suffered only 180 households, while the total number of employees is 15 400 .
The problem is that Seagate employs about 130 parts suppliers, many of them have suffered from flooding. Each hard disk is composed of more than two hundred parts, many of which are unique to each model.
Some customers are turning to Seagate company offers fixed in the contract guaranteed volume of supply, reinforcing the seriousness of their intentions in advance of $ 250 million manufacturer now raised prices by 20% subject to a contract for one or three years, although Seagate can quietly raise prices by 40%. In the end of September Seagate shares rose by 67%, and this is also a kind of compensation.