Seagate Expects Record Number of Hard Drives Delivery

Seagate has announced a record number of hard drives in a preview of its quarterly results. However, the company says that it is suffering from competitors that are struggling, which means that the turnover figures are lower

Seagate reports that it probably shipped around 66 million hard drives in the past quarter. These 66 million hard drives would account for a total of 45 exabytes of storage capacity. Although a record has been set in terms of production, the turnover figures are lower than expected. Seagate expects to achieve revenues of $4.5 billion versus an earlier forecast of $5 billion.

Seagate attributes these disappointing results to the resilience of its competitors. The flooding in Thailand disrupted the production and distribution of hard drives for many competitors, pushing prices up and allowing Seagate to expand its market share. However, the manufacturers affected by this recovered faster than expected and Seagate had to adapt. As a result, the company was unable to achieve its target growth in market share and margin. In addition, the company also mentions an ‘isolated quality problem’ at a supplier, which meant that production had to be temporarily stopped and 1.5 million hard drives were delivered less.