A report by Digitimes suggest that DRAM prices are continuing to rise at a rapid rate. In 2010, 2011 and early 2012 DRAM prices had reached rock bottom levels thanks to huge oversupply and lacklustre demand. Since mid to late 2012 up until now DRAM manufacturers cut supply drastically while demand has continue to rise driven by DDR demand in the smartphone, tablet and console markets. The new report suggests that comparing 2013 Q1 prices to 2012 Q1 prices showed at 22% increase for 2013, now if we compare 2013 Q2 to 2012 Q2 we can see a rise of 42%.
The average selling price for DRAM chips is expected to continue to rise this year while Q3 of 2013 will represent 50% price growth over Q3 of 2012 and there is 46% price growth expected for Q4 of 2013 compared to Q4 of 2012. With Micron soon finishing its acquisition of Elpida there are only three major memory players, Micro, Hynix and Samsung (who are looking to scale down production). That said they are likely to continue to control supply in order to drive prices up so expect 2014 to be another year of rising DRAM prices across all segments of the market.
One wonders whether any manufacturers will break ranks with the others and lower prices soon, or if there is collusion going on like there was in the LCD flat panel market…
Saw he current prices of some of the kits and I’m really surprised to see what’s going on.
These manufacturers have been accused of price fixing so it’ll be a while before (if ever) the price drops again. Remember these guys aren’t in the charity business, they’re there to make as much money as possible.