Increased DRAM capacity coming from advanced processing nodes from Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix and Micron Technology may result in some pricing uncertainty in the market in the second half of 2016, according to Taiwan DRAM maker Nanya Technology president Pei Ing Lee.
Lee stated that there will be price pressure in the second quarter of this year in the commodity DRAM market and Nanya expects the pressure to extend to other memory markets such for mobile devices, servers and consumer market applications. However, the company believes the amplitude of the drop will not be as extreme as was in the first quarter.
For the second half of the year, Lee expects demand for DRAM chips to be stronger than it was in the first half but market conditions are much less clear, with the key to pricing being how quickly Samsung, Hynix and Micron ramp up new capacity.
A price drop of 20-30% is possible, but if new capacity is ramped up quickly prices have the potential to drop 25-40%, Lee stated. Lee added that prices dropped 20-30% in 2015. |