14 DAY TRIAL // After WD said it had to shut down pretty much every one of its operations in Thailand, Seagate is facing unfortunate prospects as well, since it has its own facilities there.
Thailand has been suffering from bad flooding for a while already, with extensive consequences, albeit perhaps not quite as horrible as those in Japan.
Still, at least 283 people were killed since late July and there seems to be no stopping the waters for now.
In addition to the deaths, there was, and there still is, extensive damage to many areas, and Bangkok is expected to feel the brunt of it soon as well.
One thing that the disaster did was disrupt transportation and whatever factories, shops and other businesses were in its path.
Western Digital was among the most affected, having had to close pretty much all its facilities in the area.
Now, Seagate is revealing that, though its own operations were not so seriously hit, it too is worried about possible disruptions.
“Currently, all Seagate factories in Thailand are operational and there are no logistical issues with employees reaching its factories,” Seagate said in a statement.
“However, the hard disk drive component supply chain is being disrupted and it is expected that certain components in the supply chain will be constrained. Given the volatility of the situation it is unclear what the magnitude of the supply chain disruption will be to Seagate’s hard disk drive output from its Thailand operations.”
The bright side is that none of Seagate's employees are among the dead and that, at this time, there isn't a very big chance of this changing.
Seagate will speak more of this matter during its conference call, scheduled for next week. Depending on how things turn out, for it and WD, there might be real HDD supply issues down the line.