Spot prices of both DRAM and NAND flash enjoyed a big sequential jump this week (July 27-31) upon news that Samsung Electronics raised its DDR2 prices and Toshiba suffered from a power outage at its NAND flash fab, according to inSpectrum.
inSpectrum stated that the spot price of 1Gb DDR grew by about 6-7% this week, with the price of branded chips pegged at US$1.26 as of the noon session of July 31. The rise of DDR3 prices also continued this week with most 1Gb DDR3 chips settling at above US$1.90.
Despite news about Samsung's strong stance for DDR2 pricing helped drive up spot pricing this week, inSpectrum expects the large supply of DDR2 chips in the channel will make the price increase difficult to maintain.
As for the strong price of DDR3, inSpectrum stressed that availability of DDR3 in the channel is still very limited, meaning the recent price surge is supported by sentiment rather than solid demand from end users.
In fact, once chip prices of 1Gb DDR3 are quoted above US$2, many brokers/traders in the spot market would be hesitant to buy as the translated average selling price (ASP) of a 2GB DDR3 module would have grown to over US$30, inSpectrum predicted.
For the NAND flash market, anticipation of a price recovery of low-density memory cards amid the speculated Toshiba fab power outage spurred prices of low-density 16Gb NAND flash chip to increase by more than 8% this week to US$4.40 as of the noon session of July 31.
inSpectrum attributes the solid price growth of low-density NAND flash to improving demand for 1GB and 2GB microSD cards from handset and camera vendors, which find their sales have improved a lot during the summer holidays. The price of 1GB and 2GB microSD card has grown by 9% and 10%, respectively, this week, the firm stated. inSpectrum estimates that over 60% of global demand for NAND flash will be come from the handset and camera segments in the third quarter of 2009.
| inSpectrum: Spot price for mainstream 1Gb DRAM chips, Jul 27-31 (US$) | |||
| Date | Branded DDR2 | White brand DDR2 | Branded DDR3 |
| 2009/07/24 | 1.19 | 1.14 | 1.87 |
| 2009/07/27 | 1.19 | 1.14 | 1.9 |
| 2009/07/28 | 1.23 | 1.19 | 1.9 |
| 2009/07/29 | 1.27 | 1.22 | 1.92 |
| 2009/07/30 | 1.26 | 1.22 | 1.93 |
| 2009/07/31 | 1.26 | 1.22 | 1.93 |
Source: inSpectrum, compiled by Digitimes, July 2009
| inSpectrum: Spot price for mainstream MLC NAND flash, Jul 27-31 (US$) | ||
| Date | 16Gb | 32Gb |
| 2009/07/24 | 3.99 | 5.83 |
| 2009/07/27 | 4.06 | 5.94 |
| 2009/07/28 | 4.15 | 5.98 |
| 2009/07/29 | 4.40 | 6.08 |
| 2009/07/30 | 4.40 | 6.01 |
| 2009/07/31 | 4.40 | 5.99 |
Source: inSpectrum, compiled by Digitimes, July 2009