THE RECOVERY IN prices of DRAM was seasonally driven and has run out of steam, according to an analyst at iSuppli. Nam Hyung Kim claimed in a note to customers today that contract prices in the fourth quarter have fallen by as much as 15 per cent. That, said Kim, underlines the fragile nature of an overall recovery in the market. He said unit shipment growth is not just slow, it's stagnant. Merchants trading in DRAM are switching to more SDRAM and less DDR memory types, said Kim, because DVD players and set top boxes demand that type.
Further, there's a shortage of SDRAM at 64Mbits because of production problems at an unidentified manufacturer. His report adds that as well as contract prices, prices of all types of 256Mbit DDR memory, including 266, 333, and 400 have fallen for seven consecutive weeks. Isuppli estimates that 256Mbit DDR pricing could drop to $3 by mid-January. Yet, despite the lack of steam and indeed the stagnant nature of memory right now, the analyt figures that 2004 will be not bad.
Kim said: "Once DRAM prices reach rock bottom, DRAM traders and buyers will initiate purchasing and prices should increase due to Chinese New Year demand". But we're not at the bottom yet. We're near to the bottom, fundamentally, and every DRAM trader is watching for the bottom.
News source: The Inq
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