DRAM Prices Jump Amid Makers' Shipment Control

It seems that DRAM prices are finally starting to be pulled up a little, announce Taiwan DRAM makers. As many of you know already, the DRAM market has been moving downward during the recent few months, while most of the major players in the area posted dramatically lowered revenues or high losses.

The new turn of events is based on the fact that the DRAM output has been lowered with 20 percent by Hynix Semiconductor coupled with a helpful hand for the rescuing of the DRAM industry, offered by governments in several countries. DRAM makers also stated that distributors should be on short supply at the moment, given the fact that they had been clearing inventories for several months now.

After receiving a boost from governments, DRAM makers made their move as well, and started to strictly select customers and orders so as to leverage prices a little more. According to some of the industry players, on December 18th, the pricing of effective tested (eTT) 1Gb DDR2 climbed 18 percent, while that of branded 1Gb DDR2 also saw an increase of 13 percent.

The DRAM makers also stated that the supply-side price control was a solution that could only be effective in the short term. The industry would be able to redeem itself only if the demand in the market saw a great increase.

On related news, we learn that some makers such as Samsung Electronics refuse to adopt the output cutting solution, although the market has seen shrinking. At the same time, the Taiwan government is reported to encourage more multiple integration links such as Japan-Taiwan and US-Taiwan partnerships.

According to some voices within DRAM makers, sourcing key process node technology via partnerships, Japan's Elpida Memory and US-based Micron Technology are also taken into consideration. Such a move would allow makers to improve their cost structures, while the two would also benefit from Taiwan counterparts' 12-inch wafer capacity and engineering resources.