Looking at shipment performance of the worldwide motherboard industry in the fourth quarter of 2011, since the fourth quarter is traditionally the off-season for the industry, most of the motherboard vendors began to adjust production capacity and lowered inventory levels after China's October long holiday. The industry has anticipated shipment declines in the fourth quarter. Nevertheless, the HDD (Hard Disk Drive) shortage caused by floods in Thailand has not only affected HDD supplies from suppliers but also led to inventory buildups done by channel distributors in an attempt to boost the profit brought by HDDs. As a result, the gap between HDD supply and demand widened and HDD price tags climbed considerably. The overall fourth-quarter shipment volume is expected to have decreased by 9% in comparison with the third quarter of 2011, reaching approximately 36.1 million units. Upheld by the better-than-expected shipment performance recorded in the third quarter, the industry's overall shipment volume in full-year 2011 is projected to see a 3.2% increase compared with full-year 2010 to around 149.9 million units.