DRAM prices fall for the 1st time in 9 months 

DRAM prices have fallen for the first time in nine months as of July. The memory has enjoy price rises from PC and server due to the COVID-19 pandemic but this has weakened as clients have more in stock.

According to DRAMeXchange, PC DRAM DDR4 8Gb 2133MHz contract price has fallen 5.44% to US$3.13. It marks the end to DRAM’s price rise that started in October last year.

32GB DRAM for servers also saw its contract price fall 6.4% to US$134.

PC DRAM prices rose every month in the first five months of 2020 but began to stabilize in June. 

Server DRAM was contract priced at US$143.1 between April to June to due demand from PCs in work and education as well as expansion of data centers due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The strong DRAM prices helped Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix improve their earnings in the first half of this year. Samsung’s semiconductor business marked 5.43 trillion won in operating profits in the first quarter __ it posted 3.99 trillion won in the first quarter. SK Hynix also saw operating profits rise 143% year over year in the second quarter.

DRAM is in oversupply as of the third quarter and average sales prices has fallen, DRAMeXchange noted.

However, the drop in contract prices could be temporary as vendors has been expecting a readjustment in the third quarter. SK Hynix has predicted in its second quarter conference call that the readjustment will be short, unless there were more uncertainties stemming from the pandemic, and prices will hit bottom sometime in the second half of the year to bounce back up.