Floods Severely Disrupted Thai PC Market in 4Q11

Thailand’s PC market in 4Q 2011 plunged 40% sequentially and 14% year-on-year due to rampant floods in the country which badly disrupted supplies in HDDs, according to IDC Corp.‘s Asia/Pacific Quarterly PC Tracker.

                 Thailand PC Shipments, 1Q11-4Q11

  (Source: IDC’s Asia/Pacific Quarterly PC Tracker, 4Q2011)

The flooding situation plagued the nation for most of 4Q 2011 and caused demand for PCs to fall drastically.

The disaster also devastated the supply chain of PC vendors. The disruption brought total PC shipments in 2011 to 17% over 2010 despite the strong momentum built in the beginning of the year.

"The consumer market was heavily impacted by the severe floods. Apart from the drop in demand, supplies were heavily constrained throughout the quarter and vendors struggled to bring stocks into Thailand. However, the PC market was not only crippled by shortages in HDD supplies. Infrastructure damage caused by the floods also hampered access to outlying cities which further pulled down the market," says Jarit Sidhu, Associate Market Analyst for Client Devices Research at IDC Thailand.

Demand from the public sector fell sharply after two quarters of strong spending and the floods also wreaked havoc on the automotive and manufacturing industries as most businesses were busy trying to salvage the situation in 4Q 2011.

Although demand for PCs is expected to bounce back in 2012 with post-flood rebuilding work being the main stimulator, supply constraints will continue to affect shipments in the upcoming quarters. U pdated forecasts indicate that Thailand’s PC market in 2012 will expand moderately, by a mere 12%. Shipment growth in the first half of the year is expected to be tepid before it begins to pick up pace as the year progresses.