Thread,
The notion of a head shortage is starting to gain some momentum. I have recently had some discussion with a DD mfg exec that suggests the bottleneck is more at the HSA assembly and yield point. Still a considerable loss at the point where the e-block, HGA, flex cable, rotary positioner motor, pre amp, et al are assembled into an HSA. The two companies with the largest capacity for HSA are SAE and RDRT. SAE, for example, assembles a HSA for WD that has no SAE heads, only IBM heads, at their plant in Shen Zhen. Most of SEGs HSA work is done in Thailand. RDRT is doubling its HSA capacity in the Phillipines. AMC has a substantial capacity for HSA assembly work in Penang Malaysia and Korea.
It will be interesting to see how this plays out as the industry shifts to GMR and 30% sliders.
Best,
Stitch
P.S. New SEG thread for fundamentals discussion at
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