Two sources independently tell us that a huge fire has burned
down the largest production facility of HLDS, the joint venture of the Japanese
Hitachi and South Korean LG. The facility located in Huizhou in China
is reportedly responsible for over 5 million of the global production of a
total of 5.5 million HLDS drives. According to one source the plant is totally
burned down and the fire caused death to four people. Hitachi and LG aimed
together to become one of the largest optical storage manufacturers.
Update: Digitimes has more on this, as the
story has become available in several Chinese
newspapers. The fire will most likely have a big effect on the shipments of HLDS
as the company was OEM manufacturer for Dell and HP and is no longer able to
deliver. Most likely Lite-On, BenQ and/or other Taiwanese manufacturers will
benefit from the fires as OEM orders will be diverted to them. How the fire was
started is unknown. More information and details on the factory can be found in
this
Digitimes article.
Source: CD Freaks
