Andre Yoskowitz
28 Aug 2011 14:49
Western Digital has been forced to raise the prices of its HDDs, says Hexus, thanks to the continued demand and scarce supply for rare earth elements.
The move is effective immediately, with WD already informing partners of the price hike.
Prices are expected to be hiked 10 percent for 500GB drives and 5 percent for 1TB drives.
Rare earth elements, the supply of which is controlled by China, have been increasing in price for a year now, as the nation intentionally holds back supply to make as much profit as possible from desperate manufacturers.
It is unclear whether the price increases on WD drives will make their way to consumers or if the manufacturers will have to eat the charges, for now.