October 16, 2023 /SemiMedia/ -- According to the latest report from memory chip market research organization TrendForce, the average price of DRAM and NAND Flash has begun to rise across the board since the fourth quarter. DRAM contract prices are expected to increase by approximately 3-8% in the fourth quarter.
In terms of PC DRAM chips, the average price of DDR5 has increased in the third quarter, and demand is expected to continue to rise. It is predicted that DDR4 prices will increase by 0~5% month-on-month in the fourth quarter; DDR5 prices will increase by approximately 3~8% month-on-month.
In terms of DRAM chips for servers, the proportion of DDR5 buyer inventory has increased from 20% in the second quarter to 30~35%. However, the actual assembly rate of DDR5 memory in servers in the third quarter was only 15%, which shows that the market adoption demand is not as fast as expected. At the same time, Samsung's expanded production cuts will limit the production of DDR4, and the supply-side DDR4 inventory for servers will also begin to decrease, so there will be no room for server DDR4 prices to fall further.
Regarding mobile DRAM chips, sales were good in the second half of the year as chip inventories returned to normal levels earlier and prices were highly elastic. On the other hand, even though smartphone production in the fourth quarter did not reach the level of the same period in the past, it still increased by 10% quarter-on-quarter, supporting mobile DRAM demand.
