SSD is too expensive, so switch to HDD. Mechanical hard drive prices have risen for 5 consecutive quarters.

Mechanical hard drive (HDD) bulk transaction prices rose 10% from April to June compared with the previous quarter. Strong demand for PCs in China and the retreat caused by rising SSD prices are the two core driving forces.Data shows that the unit price of 3.5-inch 1TB products (for desktop computers and surveillance cameras) reached approximately US$58.9, and the unit price of 2.5-inch 1TB products (for laptops) reached approximately US$55.6. Both specifications increased by 10% month-on-month.Both products have increased for five consecutive quarters, with previous quarterly increases ranging from 1% to 4%.

Among them, the number of purchases from Chinese companies has increased sharply, domestic PC production capacity continues to expand, the special demand for educational PCs equipped with mechanical hard drives has remained strong since 2025, and the demand for surveillance cameras is also rising simultaneously.

The surge in SSD prices has further amplified the return of demand for HDDs. Some companies have switched from solid-state drives to mechanical hard drives, converting the pressure of rising SSD prices into incremental orders for HDDs.

This also means that the devouring effect of AI on HBM and NAND is reshaping the entire storage market structure. SSD price increases not only suppress consumer upgrade demand, but also reversely activate the HDD market that was originally considered to be phased out.

Tightening on the supply side has also pushed up prices. Seagate, Western Digital, and Toshiba have prioritized the production of high-margin near-line storage HDDs for data centers. Seagate even plans to discontinue production of some 1TB and 2TB small-capacity products.

Hyperscale cloud service providers such as Google and Amazon account for about 60% of near-line HDD sales, and the proportion is still rising. However, even so, leading companies are still unable to obtain the required goods in full.

According to the forecast of Techno Systems Research, a Japanese research company, near-line HDD shipment capacity will increase by 5% month-on-month from April to June this year. The continued increase in single hard drive capacity is the main source of growth.