Chip Prices
The DRAM spot price soared by over 37% in just a couple of months, due to the fire at SK Hynix’s Wuxi plant on September 4. The recent earthquake in Taiwan also caused the price to further rise by shutting down some foundry firms. The high price is forecast to continue until this year’s end in, that SK Hynix has postponed the normalization of operation until December.
According to DRAMeXchange, the spot price for 2Gb DDR3 (1,600MHz) was US$2.179 on November 4, 37.2% up from two months ago.
The price fell slightly in late October after having skyrocketed between early September and mid-October. The market research firm’s data shows that the price jumped 16.1% to US$1.844 on September 5 and broke the US$2 mark eight days later. On September 16, the price hit US$2.285. Though it fell to US$2.27, it reached US$2.31 on October 15 and has been around US$2.1 since then.
The high price can be attributed to two reasons. One is the delay in the recovery of the SK Hynix Wuxi plant, and the other is the 6.7 magnitude earthquake in eastern Taiwan that has stopped the operation of TSMC and the like.
“The high price is likely to continue until the restart of the operation of the Wuxi plant,” said IBK Investment and Securities analyst Lee Seung-woo, adding, “The balance in supply and demand will be found only after the recovery.” Tong Yang Securities researcher Park Hyun echoed by saying, “Then, the supply will increase during the low season to cause the price to be stabilized.”