20 GB HDD prices shoots up by 20 percent

Prices of hard disk drives have gone up by 20 percent across the country. The

rise is the highest in Delhi at 26 percent and lowest in Bangalore at 11

percent.

The prices have gone up mainly because of the shortage of 20 GB HDDs in the

market. Said Dharmendra Baid of Mega Byte Corporation, "Seagate 20 GB HDD

is currently being sold at Rs 4,550 as against July last week's price of Rs

4,100--a hike of 11 percent."

Prices of Maxtor HDDs too have gone up. Cyberstar Infocom, Maxtor's

distributor pointed out that HDDs were sold at Rs 4,000 in July and are

currently out of stock.

In Delhi, HDD prices have risen to Rs 4,800 for the 20 GB HDD, which was

available for Rs 3,800 on till June. However Bharat Bhushan of RR Systems is

optimistic that the prices will not cross the Rs 5,000 mark. "The effect of

price changes in 20 GB is greater because it has the highest demand," he

adds.

Meanwhile, the Mumbai market has reported a hike of around Rs 700 for 20 GB

HDDs. According to resellers, the hike in price is caused by the shortage.

Conjecturing about the shortage, MS Bhalla, Product Country Manager, Samsung,

cites three reasons. The first is Maxtor's shifting its entire production line

from 20 GB per platter to 40 GB per platter. "Usually the shift to a new

technology happens in a phased manner, but they have done it in one go. As a

consequence the yield rate is very low, because drives rolling out initially are

unstable. And all that is being produced is being consumed in the US

market," he says.

He adds that the other two reasons could be due to the shutdown if Western

Digital and Seagate's decision to shut down its Malaysia plant on June 30. This

plant was manufacturing 1.5 million drives per month.

Samsung HDDs too are in short supply. Says a Mumbai-based reseller,

"Shortage in Samsung HDDs is because of its inability to meet the shortfall

created by Seagate." However officials at Samsung say that the company has

increased its supply by 20 percent and will continue to do so as long as its

facilities can support it.

Most resellers are of the opinion that hard disk manufacturers treat India as

the last option for their supply. "The preference for supply of hard disk

goes to those countries where they get dollars," said one reseller.

Partners say that hikes in prices is an annual phenomenon during the

November-December period. But this year it has happened early. "This

happens because OEMs in US and Europe start manufacturing for the Christmas

buying. This puts a pressure on the market and goods are diverted from here

creating a shortage," explains Bharat.

Bhalla expects the situation to normalize by August end, but adds that this

is also when the Christmas demand in the western market goes up. So the shortage

in supply could continue till January.

(CNS)