Tech

SSD prices may rise after incident at Western Digital

The price of SSDs is likely to rise sharply in the second half of 2022. After contamination occurred on Western Digital’s production line, the cost of NAND flash memory is expected to skyrocket. The incident also risks reducing the availability of computers on the market.

SSD
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At the end of January, a major incident occurred on the SSD hard drive production line from Western Digital. According to the Californian company, some materials in two of its partner Kioxia’s Japanese production lines were contaminated. These production lines were responsible for manufacturing NAND flash memoryone of the essential components of SSDs.

According to Western Digital, this contamination, whose exact origin is still uncertain, caused the loss of at least 6.5 exabytes of flash storage. A key supplier to Western Digital, Kioxia, one of the world’s largest flash memory producers, assumes that the cause is a component containing impurities in a specific production process of the 3D flash memory “BiCS FLASH”.

The incident at Western Digital also threatens the PC market

According to TrendForce analysts, this accident could cause a sharp increase in the price of flash memory In the coming months. The report points out that NAND memory produced by Kioxia and Western Digital accounts for up to 30% of the market.

“There could be an immediate price increase between February and March”warns TrendForce, which is counting on a 10% increase. The cost of NAND flash memory is deeply related to the price of SSDs. Flash memory is indeed the most important component of an SSD. Prices are expected to rise in the second quarter for SSDs. “This incident will impact Kioxia’s ability to ship these products and will further affect supply”notes TrendForce.

This incident therefore risks aggravating the shortage of computer components, which has paralyzed the entire industry since the containment measures against Covid-19. The shortage of flash memory should indeed cause a shortage of SSDs. This shortage of SSDs will affect availability of computers. SSD hard drives are obviously among the most important parts of a PC.

Ultimately, the PC market, already turned upside down by the explosion in demand during successive confinements and the generalization of teleworking, could encounter difficulties during the course of the year. An imbalance between supply and demand is likely to arise in the near future.

Read also: The shortage of chips also blocks the production of ink cartridges for printers

For its part, Western Digital, one of the main suppliers to the computer industry, is committed to “to work closely with its joint venture partner, Kioxia, to implement the necessary measures that will restore the facilities to a normal operating state as soon as possible”.

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