Shortages of cameras and hard disks

[John]

If you've been following the news, you would know about the floods in Thailand. Several companies we know and love have seen their factories being flooded and their machines destroyed.

As a result, it is expected that the market will be affected for the following companies:


Nikon: the factory that produces Nikon dSLR cameras was flooded, so they expect the market to ... dry on these cameras. Same thing for some lenses that are made in that country.
Canon: same story, their main factory in the country got flooded so shortages for various items are expected.
Western Digital, the hard disk manufacturer's factory has suffered severe damages. From what I saw locally, hard disk prices have jumped by more than 30% during the last couple of days. I was in the market for a 2TB internal hard disk, their prices were below 100€ a couple of days ago. Last I checked (a few moments ago) they are now in the +150€ range. And I can't find any (like the one I want) in eBay either!
Nissan and Honda factories also suffered.

So if you are in the market for these things, you'd better hurry.

[wjkuleck]

If you've been following the news, you would know about the floods in Thailand. Several companies we know and love have seen their factories being flooded and their machines destroyed.

As a result, it is expected that the market will be affected for the following companies:


Nikon: the factory that produces Nikon dSLR cameras was flooded, so they expect the market to ... dry on these cameras. Same thing for some lenses that are made in that country.
Canon: same story, their main factory in the country got flooded so shortages for various items are expected.
Western Digital, the hard disk manufacturer's factory has suffered severe damages. From what I saw locally, hard disk prices have jumped by more than 30% during the last couple of days. I was in the market for a 2TB internal hard disk, their prices were below 100€ a couple of days ago. Last I checked (a few moments ago) they are now in the +150€ range. And I can't find any (like the one I want) in eBay either!
Nissan and Honda factories also suffered.

So if you are in the market for these things, you'd better hurry.
I'm picking up my new 2012 Pilot next week. While the Pilot is made in Alabama, USA, I'm sure there are some things on it that are sourced from Japan.

Regards,

Walt

[John]

Japan hasn't suffered from the floods, Thailand has. And congrats on the Pilot, it appears to be a nice choice for an SUV these days.

Thank God, I had ordered a 2TB external Western Digital disk a few days ago, before the Greek stores got notice of the floods and potential shortages. And today, I was able to get a 2TB internal disk from Amazon in UK for about 100€ (including shipping), which is about 50€ cheaper than the Greek stores have that disk today.

[wjkuleck]

Thank you, John. This will be my third Pilot :).

Honda here in the USA is still suffering from the effects of the tsunami in Japan. Global commerce has its dark side :(.

Regards,

Walt

[John]

As I am receiving more information about the floodings, it appears that Nikon's factory in Thailand is severely hit. The first floor of the factory, which produces most of the DX lenses and some FX ones (24-120, 28-300 and, 70-300) is fully submerged in flood water. The second floor seems OK, that's where D3100, D5100, D7000 and D300s cameras are produced. However, Nikon personnel cannot visit the factory to evaluate the situation, since all these areas are closed off, due to public safety issues.

Western Digital has two factories in the flooded area, the one is flooded while the second one is "struggling". I expect hard disk prices to raise sharply the last months of this year and the first ones of 2012.

[John]

OK, some more information on hard disk shortages and their consequences.

Prices keep going up here, and availability of the most common hard disk is sporadic at best. WD Caviar Green in 1TB or 2TB are nowhere to be found.

As I mentioned before, I needed two hard disks, one 2TB external with Firewire connectivity to use as a "User" disk for my iMac and one internal to replace the small 500GB disk in my Time Capsule (Apple's backup and wireless connectivity device). The external disk was ordered from a Greek shop, in the island of Samos (an island in the eastern Aegean Sea). The guys who run it are honest and friendly. The price was logical (i.e. not inflated due to the WD factory flooding). It was shipped to me via a courier for a very reasonable cost (6€) and it arrived in less than two days from the day I placed my order. Kudos to shop13.gr.

For the internal disk, I had found a good opportunity with amazon.co.uk. The item was sold by a shop called "The Tech Lodge". The total price was about 105€, which was somewhat high, but nothing compared to the 150€ that a Greek chain-shop wanted for the same disk. The disk was indicated to be "In stock", so I ordered it. I received a confirmation email with all the details, again indicating that the item I ordered was "In stock". I was waiting for the email telling me that my item was shipped but it never came. After about a week, I received an email which was telling me that my item was NOT in stock and the shop couldn't say when it would be in stock again, so my order was cancelled.

I was frustrated, first because they'd lied to me (saying the item was "in stock") and second because I lost one week, during which hard disk prices kept going up.

So I checked out shop13.gr again, where I found a WD 2TB disk for a total of 110€ (including shipping). I am now anxiously waiting to get it, so I can have my backup device up and running again.