Thailand floods threaten PC Supply

cloud computing, Mercury News writes.

The rising monsoon waters, which began in July and have killed more than 400 people and forced thousands to evacuate their homes, have swamped seven major industrial parks housing many of the nation's hard drive factories, which supply critical components to companies such as Apple.

PCMag reports that, according to Gartner Research VP John Monroe, who has been covering the HDD business for years, the previous production projections of about 180 million drives could be reduced by as much as 50 million drives in the fourth quarter.

It's likely that drive deliveries in early 2012 will still be significantly reduced, though it's hard to know by exactly how much.

According to Computer World, two industry research firms, IHS iSuppli and IDC, have predicted that the overall market shortage due to factory flooding in Thailand will reach 25% to 28% over the next six months.

The largest producer of hard drives, Western Digital is expected to be hit the hardest as IDC predicts that up to 75% of its production will be temporarily shut down, IDC said. IHS iSuppli said fourth-quarter hard drive shipments will decline by 27.7% to 125 million units, from 173 million shipped in the third quarter.