WD reports on the cost of damage from Thai floods

We've known for a good while now that WD was hit mega hard by Thailand's floods; so much so that it's resulted in mass stock shortage and significantly raised prices across the globe due to the inability to meet continuing demand. But in its most recent financial statement WD has made it clear just how big their losses are.

The firm has cited costs of a whopping $199m as a result of the floods and it doesn't expect its plant capacity to be back to pre-flood levels until sometime in the fourth quarter (between July and September) later this year.

To put things into clearer perspective, WD's announcement reflected shipments of 28.5 million hard drives in its second quarter ending 30th December 2011, reporting revenue of $2bn. When comparing these figures to the same quarter in the previous year, revenue is down by 20 per cent, with close to 24 million more units shipped.

Things are said to be the upclimb now however, with president and CEO of WD stating, “While much work remains to be done over the next several quarters to reach our pre-flood manufacturing capabilities, the progress thus far is significantly ahead of our original expectations and is a tribute to the dedicated and effective actions of our employees, contractors and Thai government agencies, the efforts of our supply partners and the support of our customers.”

WD is still on track to complete the purchase of Hitachi's hard drive division by March this year.

Kitguru says: Here's to a fast recovery WD, especially for the sake of our wallets.

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