Up to 10% growth in the first quarter
The decline in DRAM prices, which lasted for eight months, stopped and rose sharply.
According to DRAMeXchange on the 29th, the fixed transaction price of DDR4 1 gigabit (Gb) 2133MHz, a general-purpose DRAM product for PC, recorded $3 in January. This is a 5.26% increase over the previous year. The price of this product has risen in eight months since May 2020. At that time, DRAM prices rose 0.61%. In April, the month before that, it rebounded by 11.9%.
Market research firm TrendForce said, “DRAM prices have turned to an uptrend due to a decrease in inventory from suppliers and continued strong demand growth.” The contract price will go up further,” he said.
Recently, demand for DRAM is increasing throughout the market. In the server market, Google and Amazon have resumed purchasing DRAM. Smartphone makers are also increasing their DRAM purchases to launch 5G smartphones. As demand for laptops and desktop PCs increases due to non-face-to-face activities, PC makers are also expanding their DRAM purchases.
“For some data center companies, demand movements are appearing due to increased purchase demand and increased facility investment due to inventory adjustment for some data center companies,” said Han Jin-man, vice president of Samsung Electronics’ memory marketing team, in a conference call for 4Q earnings announcement. Demand for laptops for non-face-to-face activities continues, and demand for desktops, which has been shrinking so far, is also showing signs of recovery in some markets.
The industry believes that DRAM prices will continue to rise for the time being. Trend Force predicted that in the first quarter of this year, the average selling price of DRAM, including server DRAM, would increase by up to 10% from the previous quarter.
NAND Flash (128Gb MLC product), which has maintained a downward trend since July last year, also maintained a flat price in January. It hit $4.2 unchanged from last month.
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