A resurgence of the COVID-19 in Thailand, coupled with shortages of certain chips and components, may disrupt shipments of hard disc drives (HDD) in the second half of 2021 despite the period being a peak season for the consumer electronics market, according to industry sources.

With Seagate and Western Digital (WD) now mainly producing HDDs in Thailand, their supply in the second half may be seriously impacted by the pandemic, the sources said.

Orders for HDDs are also turning strong in the second half, due to enterprises' increasing demand for

Taiwan-based Quanta Storage and New Kinpo Group are providing HDD manufacturing services to Seagate and WD and have been expanding their capacities in Thailand to assist the two clients moving production out of China amid the US-China trade tensions.

Thailand has started a nationwide lockdown since July 12, because of increasing COVID infections locally and a low vaccination coverage rate.

Although Quanta Storage's plant is far from populated areas in Thailand, the lockdown is still impacting its production.

The company reported consolidated revenues of NT$666 million (US$23.64 million) for June, down 20.3% on month and 28.36% on year, due to shortages of components and slow shipment process at ports worldwide.

However, Quanta Storage is still optimistic about its operation in the second half, thanks to increasing HDD and SSD orders for notebooks and smartphones.

By: DocMemory
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