In the past two years, the price of DRAM memory chips has been rising, making the entire industry miserable. Industry insider points out that Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, and Micron's three major memory chip makers have earned a lot of profits in the past two years since the three companies have a total market share of more than 95% and have strong control power.
In response to this abnormal increase in prices, China’s relevant departments have conducted several investigations. At the end of last year and early May of this year, according to reports from companies and industry organizations, the Chinese anti-monopoly agencies had interviewed Samsung and Micron successively. In early June, they conducted surprise investigations on the offices of these three major manufacturers in China.
According to the latest report, on June 27, the State Market Supervision Administration of China conducted a surprise investigation of the DRAMeXchange office in Shenzhen.
Founded in 2000, DRAMeXchange is headquartered in Taipei and has several branches in mainland China. It mainly researches the market and price information of DRAM and Flash industries, and holds a very comprehensive information on semiconductor industry data, including the price of components.
Analysts pointed out that China's State Market Supervision Administration's investigation of DRAMeXchange may be for collecting the DRAM product price information.
Data shows that from June 1, 2016 to February 1, 2018, the price of 4GB DRAM memory has increased by 1.3 times, and the memory price has risen by 47% in 2017 alone.
According to China’s antitrust laws, Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, and Micron may be fined between US$800 million and US$8 billion if they are found to be subject to price manipulation.
