Prices of DRAM and NAND flash memories nosedived in October, likely due to the US sanctions against Huawei taking into effect.
According to DRAMeXchange, fixed prices of PC DDR4 8Gb fell 8.9% in October compared to September to US$2.85.
This differs from August and September when the price remained stable.
For NAND flash, 128Gb memory card and USB MLC products marked fixed prices of US$4.2 in October.
This is a drop of 3.4% compared to September and the lowest fixed price for NAND flash memories recorded this year.
DRAM prices dropped around 5% in July from drop in demand from PCs and servers which soared earlier in the year due to the COVID-19 pandemic and buildup of inventories of companies.
Oversupply of PC DRAM will likely continue in the remain two months of 2020.
Market research firm TrendForce believes average selling prices of PC DRAM to fall as much as 10% in the fourth quarter of 2020.
Huawei’s buildup of inventories prior to it being banned from procuring chips maintained prices in the third quarter.
Samsung Electronics also said in its third quarter conference call that it expected memory prices to be weak in the fourth quarter due to customer’s adjusting their inventories.
Memory market is widely expected to recover beginning sometime in the first half of 2021. According to SEMI, semiconductor fab spending is expected to increase by 18% in 2021 year-on-year from demand growth in memories.
Samsung has said it will increase its investments into its semiconductors facility next year to meet the expected surge in demand.
