HDD supply to fall short of demand by 30 million units in Q1 2012

DigiTimes reports HDD supply is anticipated to surge from 110-120 million units in Q4 2011 to 140 million units in Q1 2012. Capacity is coming back online as companies are recovering from the devastating Thai floods, but supply is still expected to fall short of demand by a whopping 30 million units. The current recovery status is much better than originally expected though.

Hard drive supply volumes in the first quarter of 2012 are expected to increase from 110-120 million units in the fourth quarter of 2011 to 140 million units, helping to reduce the supply gap from 30-35% in the fourth quarter of 2011 to 17-18% as global hard drive demand each quarter is currently at about 170 million units.

As Seagate and Western Digital have both recently raised their shipment and revenue forecast for the fiscal second quarter of 2012 (October-December, 2011), indicating the recovery of hard driver capacity may be faster than original expectations.