The global SSD market is expected to grow from $5.4 billion in 2016 to $11.2 billion by 2021, according to a report by MarketsandMarkets. However, this growth could be hampered by a manufacturing catastrophe that could drive up SSD prices. A manufacturing catastrophe could occur if a major supplier of NAND flash dies or experiences production problems. This would cause the price of NAND flash chips to spike, which would impact the prices of SSDs as well. In fact, if the price of NAND flash chips rises by 50%, the average price of an SSD will also go up by 25%. This is bad news for consumers who are looking to buy an SSD because it will increase the cost of these devices. It’s also bad news for manufacturers who are relying on the growth in the global SSD market to offset declining sales in other sectors. If prices for NAND flash continue to rise, it’s likely that more companies will decide to shift their focus away from SSDs and towards other technologies such as hard drives. ..
According to Western Digital, the loss of drives was caused by a containment issue at some of its NAND production locations. The loss occurred at its Yokkaichi and Kitakami joint venture, flash fabrication facilities. These are a joint venture between Kioxia and Western Digital. Together, the two firms make up about 30% of the NAND flash memory market, so this could be a big problem.
According to market research company TrendForce, this could lead to a price hike of as much as 10% for NAND SSDs as the market compensates for the sudden shortage of drives.
As if it wasn’t already hard enough to find computer components at reasonable prices, Western Digital’s containment issue and massive loss might make another necessary PC part even more expensive (NAND SSDs already aren’t cheap).
For its part, Western Digital says it’s “working closely with its joint venture partner, Kioxia, to implement necessary measures that will restore the facilities to normal operational status as quickly as possible.”
Unfortunately, the company didn’t address how this would impact its ability to keep up with market demands, so we’ll have to keep an eye on the price of NAND SSDs to see what happens going forward.
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