HDD Shipped in 2Q20 Down 13% Q/Q at 59 Million, Market Being Impacted by Covid-19

In its SDAS: HDD Information Service, 2CQ20 Quarterly Update, published on August 6, 2020, analyst company Trendfocus, Inc. wrote:

Covid-19 Economic Impact Limits HDD Shipments to 59 Million in 2CQ20
Nearline eases on hyperscale pause ahead of transitions 243EB shipped in the quarter

Seagate
The company continued to hold the unit and exabyte share lead on nearline HDDs in 2CQ20 despite an overall nearline TAM decline. 7.65 million nearline units slipped 5% Q/Q while capacity shipments of 81.12EB increased 5% with average capacity jumping to 10.6TB.

Enterprise OEM weakness as well as a build-up of inventory cut 2.5″ performance enterprise shipments by 27% while all other segments declined more-or-less in line with the market except where share was gained as a result of constrained manufacturing output by Toshiba.

Despite a pending transition to flash later in the year, game console HDD demand rose seasonally, lifting 2.5″ CE HDD shipments sharply Q/Q, although total units in the category were a modest 1.67 million.

Total HDD shipments of 26.08 million slid 11% Q/Q while total capacity shipped of 116.77EB dipped only 2% over the same period owing to the improved nearline mix.

Toshiba
The firm suffered the greatest impact from coronavirus-related factory slowdowns, cutting output from its Philippines HDD assembly location.

Total units plunged 32% Q/Q to 9.55 million units. A precipitous one million sequential unit reduction cut nearline shipments by 51% to 0.94 million while capacity shipments for the category of 8.37EB suffered a 44% Q/Q reduction. Since much of its desktop HDD products are assembled by its partner SAE in China, desktop HDD shipments experienced the smallest segment contraction, slipping 6% Q/Q.

Total HDD shipments fell 32% sequentially to 9.55 million units with capacity shipped falling 44% to 18.05 exabytes.

Western Digital
Occupying the number two share position in the market, its nearline shipments of 6.78 million declined 7% Q/Q while capacity shipped of 76.11EB held nearly flat Q/Q on an average capacity that rose above 11TB for the quarter.

Despite weak retail and client PC HDD demand, the company lifted sequential unit shipments of mobile HDDs by 9% to 8.10 million units as a result of significant share gain over both of its competitors.

All other segments fell Q/Q and as the company has not supplied game console manufactures in over a year, its 2.5″ CE shipments did not benefit from the slight seasonal gaming demand uptick.

Total HDD shipments of 23.14 million dipped 5% sequentially, suffering the lowest Q/Q decline in the industry while capacity shipped of 108.18EB inched down 2% over the same period.

HDD supplier summary, 2CQ20