On several occasions, we’ve mentioned here the steady rise in SSD prices, due in particular to the desire of the major players to restore their margins. This trend had nothing to do with the state of demand, but was totally linked to the economic policies of the companies concerned. However, several factors have been shaking up the storage market in recent weeks. It seems that demand is unexpectedly reawakening in both the consumer and professional markets, which are shaken by the AI craze.
SSD and HDD prices set to rise by nearly 65%?
TrendForce, specialists in trend analysis and monitoring, reports that WD and Seagate have officially instructed their partners to start implementing large-scale price increases on mechanical hard drives and SSDs. The problem for us is that price trends were already alarmist before this rebound in demand. Several projections predicted a price increase of nearly 25% for all SSD ranges, including consumer SSDs, by 2024.
If the Seagate letter unveiled by Trendforce is anything to go by, the increase could well be much more violent in the coming weeks and well into 2024. Seagate sees no improvement in the situation over the coming quarters. This increase would come on top of the 25% mentioned above. We could then expect a further 40% increase over the coming period. In other words, we could well be looking at a cumulative price increase of 65%. This is how markets will hold up over the long term, given manufacturers’ reduced manufacturing capacity. In addition, persistent global inflationary pressures continue to have an impact on costs that manufacturers have to pass on. In the same vein, at the beginning of April, Western Digital informed its customers of ongoing price increases for NAND Flash products and hard disk drives, confirming the shortage of hard disk drive supplies. Others, however, believe that the increase should remain “acceptable” at around 15 to 30%, but that these figures could rise further due to geopolitical risks that could constrain the supply chain of the entire electronics sector.
