DRAM Prices Reach New Record in October
The average price of DRAM in October broke its record high once again. The average price of NAND flash in the same month maintained its highest price following last month.According to market research firm DRAMeXchange on Oct. 30, the average contract price of general-purpose DRAM products (DDR4 8Gb
In October, the average price of DRAM once again breached its previous record. The average cost of NAND flash remained at its highest level since last month, according to market research firm DRAMeXchange. The average price of DDR4 8Gb 1Gx8 general-purpose DRAM products was $27.5 in October, a 5.77% increase from $26 in the previous month.
This represents roughly a 9.5-fold increase since the survey began in June 2016. TrendForce, the parent company of DRAMeXchange, predicts that PC DRAM contract prices will rise 13-18% in the fourth quarter compared to the previous quarter. This surge in prices is attributed to memory manufacturers expanding server memory production while reducing PC DRAM supply.
Despite weak PC demand, price trends are expected to continue due to ongoing supply constraints. During fourth-quarter contract price negotiations, client companies resisted a 15-20% increase proposal, thus preventing large-scale transactions. However, TrendForce anticipates that the November contract price standard will be slightly higher than October's.
The average general-purpose NAND product price for memory cards and USBs (128Gb 16Gx8 MLC) also remained steady at $30.61 in October, unchanged from the prior month. TrendForce observed that the supply of older process products is dwindling as NAND flash manufacturers shift focus to advanced 3D NAND. Nevertheless, multi-level cell (MLC) products maintained consistent prices across all capacities in October, as high prices coincided with supply volume difficulties for client companies.
Single-level cell (SLC) NAND flash, however, continued its upward price trend, driven by demand from automotive, industrial control devices, and low Earth orbit satellites. The average SLC price rose 5-10% in October, with high-capacity products (4 gigabits or more) experiencing a particularly significant increase of 9.0-9.9%. Moving forward, it is predicted that MLC and SLC price trends will diverge.
TrendForce expects high-capacity SLC prices to keep rising in the fourth quarter, while MLC prices may slightly decrease due to demand reduction as client companies transition to cheaper SLC or triple-level cell (TLC) products.
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