Supply shortages have hit many industries quite hard in the last few years, and the camera and computer industries have not been immune. A recent discovery of contaminated materials at two major manufacturing plants has led to significant impacts on the flash memory market, which analysts predict will likely lead to increased prices.
The incident happened recently at two Western Digital and Kioxia factories, where contaminated materials were discovered, leading to a loss of approximately 16 exabytes (16 million terabytes) of 3D NAND material. For reference, this would equate to about 8% of all total SSD capacity shipped in 2021. As WD and Kioxia are some of the biggest producers of flash memory, analysts expect there to be a noticeable impact on the prices of SSDs and other flash memory devices.
Based on Western Digital's loss of 6.5 exabytes out of the 16 total, analysts are forecasting a 5 to 10% increase in flash memory prices in the second quarter of this year, with that number likely climbing higher once Kioxia analyzes how badly their production was affected. In tandem with the shortage, analysts expect prices to also increase due to the ongoing supply shortages. Thankfully, it appears that only 3D NAND material was affected, with supply of 2D NAND not expected to be affected. Nonetheless, if you need more storage, now may be the time to get it.
I'm glad that I bought the next pair of external drives, I should be good for the next 18 months or so.
"Based on Western Digital's loss of 6.5 exabytes out of the 16 total, analysts are forecasting a 5 to 10% increase in flash memory prices in the second quarter of this year ..."
A huh. With WD prices rising as well I'll bet.