Higher battery prices caused by fire at LG plant
A Dell spokesperson acknowledged the shortage today and has blamed it for recent replacement battery price increases, but said little more than “We sell battery packs. The prices of those battery packs for people ordering extra batteries have gone up.” In the short term, PC manufacturers may be able to stabilize high battery prices against plummeting flash memory prices.
The plant isn’t scheduled to resume battery production for another 2-3 months. In the meantime, manufacturers have been able to purchase some batteries from plants owned by Sony and Panasonic while waiting for LG Chem to resume production.