Disk-drive component supplier Hutchinson Technology this morning said the company will post better-than-expected results for its fiscal third quarter ended June 26.
FORBES: Hutchinson Tech Soars; Sees Q3 Revs Well Above Street Ests
As the hard disk drive and drive component companies start to get back into their factories to access the damage there will undoubtedly be a lot of facility cleanup and repair and likely replacement of some expensive capital equipment particularly when this equipment was on the first floor of a flooded building.
FORBES: Capital Equipment Likely Needed for Thailand HDD Factory Repairs
Or, at the very least, need a new hard drive or some other component?
The inspection report on the Electric Drive Vehicle Battery and Component Manufacturing Initiative grant came a day after President Barack Obama lauded U.S. efforts to invest in alternative energy.
Together these mounting vendor wars will drive incremental demand for component suppliers, but longer-term investors will need to identify those suppliers that are well positioned with those few companies that will be the ultimate hardware winners.
The company said that while its own component and disk drive factories in Thailand have not been directly affected by flooding, its ability to manufacture hard disk drives has been impacted due to external component supply constraints, as it has disclosed previously.
Replacement and repair of this equipment should provide at least a short term revenue opportunity for companies such as KLA-Tencor, Flexstar, Teradyne and Xyratex as well as a host of other component and hard disk drive assembly and test equipment companies .
FORBES: Capital Equipment Likely Needed for Thailand HDD Factory Repairs
Compounding the problem: the floods have also have affected component suppliers, including the disk-drive motor company Nidec and suspension arm manufacturer Hutchinson Technology, among others.
FORBES: Will Thailand Floods Trigger Shortfalls In PC Production? (Updated)
The company sells the Fluence but owns the battery, the most expensive component of an electric car and charges drivers for the miles they drive.
More disks and heads per drive, combined with larger HDD unit shipments in 2013 and later years will mean more spending on HDD component capital equipment.
The demand for NAND flash memory, which is a core component in mobile devices, remained strong as market growth in smartphones and tablet PCs continued to drive up orders.
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