Quarterly reports of hard drives recently caused great public interest , because to average users it is very interesting to know what market participants are willing to justify the current prices level for hard drives. Manufacturers recognize that began to earn more, but refer to the need to compensate the incurred as a result of October flood damages in Thailand.
IHS iSuppli Experts, which has recently promised that the price of hard drives will not return to the level of October 2011 up to 2014, published a new report, this time dedicated to the study of the earnings of hard drives for the first quarter this year.
Together, the producers were able to gain for the period $ 9.6 billion - more than in the first quarter 2010 ($ 9.3 billion), which until recently was considered a record. Production volumes at the same time behind the performance of the third quarter 2011: 145 million released hard drive against 174 million increase in revenues due to extremely high prices for hard drives - this figure is an average of $ 66.28, while in the third quarter last year, up to floods, it was equal to $ 51.49. Analysts expect that production will not return to pre-crisis levels until the third quarter this year. Prices, as previously reported, will fall much later.
The total amount of revenue in the first quarter, divided as follows among manufacturers: Seagate (with Samsung) received 46%, Western Digital - 32%, then an independent Hitachi - 11%, and Toshiba was content by 11%. Seagate, along with Samsung managed to produce 60.7 million hard drives and gain $ 4.45 billion
Merging WD and Hitachi did not manage to significantly affect the results of the first quarter, but the manufacturers have released a total of 44.2 million hard drives. In the current quarter WD expects revenue between $ 4.2 to $ 4.5 billion
Rates of return in the first quarter were quite high: 37% for Seagate, and 32% for WD. In the second quarter, both manufacturers expect to increase this figure to 35%.
In the first quarter revenue of Toshiba was $ 1.1 billion - less than that obtained in the third quarter last year, $ 1.3 billion, the Company issued 20.6 million hard drives. By 2014 it expects to bring the level of proceeds from the sale of hard drives up to $ 10 billion in annual terms - it is about two times more than now.