Thailand Floods: Hard Drive Prices Skyrocket, Could Take Years to Recover

Hard drive prices have skyrocketed following severe flooding in Thailand, with analysts predicting that prices could take two years to recover.


Flooding in Thailand - which has killed more than 400 people - have shut down countless factories, and as a result hard drive shortages are being felt globally, resulting in steep price climbs.

Digitimes reports that prices of 500GB drives have shot up from $45 to over $100, which has been blamed on retailers panic-buying units in two or three times the volume of their usual orders.

Technology site Bit-Tech has reported that prices in the UK are also going up, with 2TB drives increasing two-fold to around £140 and specifically the 1TB Samsung F3 drive - which used to retail for around £30 - is now selling for more than £80.

ExtremeTech.com has used price-tracking site Camelegg to check the price of a Western Digital 2TB drive - a typical hard drive bought for backing up data to. The graph, below, shows the price remains steady at around $150 from early May until October, with some small fluctuation; but from late October the price increases massively to almost $250.

While hard disk drives (HDDs) are seeing massive price rises because of the floods, sold state drives (SSDs) are not affected, with Bit-Tech predicted that the SSD industry will see a boost from consumers opting for the more expensive, but considerably faster, driver over traditional HDDs.

Bit-Tech adds: "With most component suppliers potentially out of action for months, if not years, it's possible hard disk prices won't drop to pre-floor levels for some time."