DRAM Market
SK Hynix achieved the highest market share of its history in the global DRAM market thanks to the price increase of DRAM for PCs.
On August 9, online semiconductor commerce website DRAM Exchange reported SK Hynix’s Q2 DRAM sales of 2.843 trillion won (US$2.558 billion) showed a 40.7% increase compared to its Q1 sales of 2.022 trillion won (US$1.819 billion).
Accordingly, SK Hynix’s DRAM market share jumped from 26.5% in Q1 to 30% in Q2, securing its second place in the global market. This is the first time for SK Hynix to have DRAM market share in the 30s.
Also, SK Hynix caught up with the market-leading Samsung Electronics (32.7%) by narrowing the share difference down to 2.7% points. Samsung Electronics marked 3.106 trillion won (US$2.794 billion) for its Q2 DRAM sales, increasing 7.7% from its Q1 sales of 2.883 trillion won (US$2.594 billion). Meanwhile, its market share dropped from 37.8% to 32.7%.
SK Hynix’s Q2 market share became higher than the combined share of the recently merged Elpida of Japan (15.2%) in 3rd place and Micron Technology of the US (12.9%) in 4th, thus providing a positive market outlook.
The price increase of DRAM for PC played the most crucial role in the skyrocketing of SK Hynix’s market share. The price of DRAM for PC went up in Q2 due to the resolved oversupply issues, which positively affected the increased range of sales at SK Hynix, the main product of which is DRAM for the PC.
The actual average price for one of the main products, 4 gigabyte (GB) DRAM for PCs, rose 16% from 26,120 won (US$23.50) in Q1 to 30,288 won (US$27.25) in Q2. Meanwhile, the mobile DRAM price dropped 5-8%. The production of DRAM for PC takes up 30% of the entire DRAM production by SK Hynix.
In addition, the total market sales of DRAM in Q2 turned out to be 9.482 trillion won (US$8.531 billion) which increased 24.2% from that of Q1, which was 7.637 trillion won (US$6.87 billion).
An associate from the industry offered some insight, saying, “SK Hynix’s good improvement in its sales performance was largely a reflected benefit of the price increase of DRAM for PC in Q2,” and added, “Since the oversupply of DRAM for PC is resolving while the production of DRAM for mobile is rising, SK Hynix will be able to continue its stable growth.”