DRAM prices drop due to high inventories
Will memory be cheaper soon?
DRAM will soon be cheaper: Due to high inventories, manufacturers want to push prices down. The chips could soon cost almost 20 percent less.
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The prices for DRAM (Dynamic Random Access Memory) are expected to fall more than expected in the coming months. That makes one Research by consulting firm Trendforce. According to this, high inventories at manufacturers should push prices down.
The increased production volumes in particular are putting pressure on the large Korean manufacturers such as Samsung and SK Hynix. At the same time, this is countered by comparatively low growth in demand. The reasons for this include increased inflation and the additional costs for DDR5 RAM. Price reductions of 13 to 18 percent in the third quarter increase these and counteract the production surplus. In addition, there are falling prices on the spot market for DRAM chips, as can be seen, for example, on the DRAMeXchange memory exchange. It is therefore expected that other manufacturers such as Micron will follow suit and adjust their prices accordingly.
For the fourth quarter, Trendforce also expects prices to continue to fall, albeit to a lesser extent. Between 3 and 8 percent are expected for the end of the year. And an oversupply of DRAM is also expected for 2023, which could result in a historic price low.
Will memory be cheaper soon?
For end customers, this will probably mean lower prices when purchasing memory. While DRAM chips represent only a portion of RAM bars, Trendforce expects the lower costs to be passed on.
With DDR3 RAM, for example, there is a lot of scope for falling prices. The memory generation that is now being phased out has recently increased in price and in some cases reached values that were more than half the historical low price. Even with DDR4, the prices should continue to fall despite the already low level and the stable price situation in the past few months.
Additional factors such as the power management (PMIC) built into the bar play a role in the pricing of the new DDR5 RAM. Nevertheless, it seems possible that the manufacturers will continue to adjust the prices for DDR5 to DDR4. That would have according to Trendforce result in greater adoption by consumers, which should relax the market.
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Reference-www.pc-magazin.de