Research: Memory Inflation, Component Spillover, and ITAD Harvesting Strategy, 2026-2027

the component market is undergoing substantial transformation. Memory prices have doubled. Enterprise SSD supply won’t normalize until late 2027 at the earliest. The closure of the Strait of Hormuz has cut off helium supply critical to chip fabrication, stalled hyperscaler data center builds, and driven freight costs high enough to break international remarketing economics. China’s rare earth export controls — with a key suspension expiring November 10, 2026 — are adding licensing friction to the same semiconductor supply chains that determine what secondary market hardware is worth.

Markets: The whitebox blind spot in PC recycling

There’s a growing segment of the PC market that doesn’t show up in shipment data and in market share reports, and reaches none of the channels ITAD and recycling professionals are built to serve. After tracking this industry for decades, I’ve watched it go from a...

Less premium smartphone inventory is reaching recyclers

Assurant’s latest mobile trade-in data shows that the best smartphones are being pulled into reuse and refurbishment channels sooner as the scrap stream is getting thinner and rougher, and value is moving upstream fast.