Inventory clearout for both DRAM and NAND Flash chips
DXI dropped 2.3 % (or 65 points) to 2,750 during November 8-15, mainly driven by the price drop of the mainstream chips.
Spot price for DDR 256Mb 32Mx8 400MHz dropped by 3.8% from US$2.34 to US$2.25 while the same-density efficiently tested ETT (UTT) chip dropped below US$2.0 and drifted to the US$1.94- $1.96 range during November 8-15. DDR2 transactions remained lackluster with prices of the major brands dropped by 1.8% from US$4.44 to US$4.36. N.M.B (Non-major-brand) had also dropped 1.5% from US$3.28 to US$3.23. Prices for low-density SDRAMs still kept staying at the low range with SDRAM 1Mx16 traded within the narrow range of US$0.62-$0.63 and SDRAM 4Mx16 near US$0.96-US$0.98.
As DRAM prices continue trending downward, some major DRAM buyers and module houses are suffering loss amid the DRAM inventory kept on hand. They are prompted to source DRAM chips only upon requests. Some brokers and traders have dumped their DRAM stocks to the market as they lost patience to wait for the prices rebound.
DRAMeXchange observes that some DRAM chips, which were marked with the May to June date codes, were circulated at the spot market; indicating that these DRAM brokers and traders have reserved DRAM chips for speculation for months. Sources indicated that the latest ETT (UTT) prices released slide to US$2.0 and the available quantities should ramp up in coming days, thus exposing DRAM prices to suffer price pressure through December.
Despite the top four Taiwan motherboard makers have reported an approximate of 9.4%MoM shipment growth in October and the amount should escalate further and peak in November, both DRAM contract and spot prices have suffered prices down in the previous months amid the supply glut that ever emerge from September. The shaky pricings could have evident at Taiwan DRAM makers' October financial performances. Despite Nanya and Powerchip respectively reported revenues up 3.8% and 14%, DRAM ASP drop by at least 5% in October.
The steady demand and limited supply at the spot market hold spot prices for most NAND Flash chips grow except the 8Gb part. Prices of the 8Gb chips were traded down from US$55.54 to US$54.68 over the week November 8-15. 1Gb/2Gb/4Gb were traded slightly up from US$28.52 to US$28.88, US$14.39 to US$15.1 and US$8.07 to US$8.18 respectively.
We observe that transactions remained limited, especially for the 4Gb and 8Gb chips. Demand for the Hynix-made 2Gb chip grew vibrant, buoyed by the demand from China market. However, sources indicated that Hynix will release more chips to the spot market this week and some players have start dumping stocks with a lowering prices
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