14 DAY TRIAL // It seems that natural disasters and ironic twists go hand in hand these days, as the destruction and death wrought by the cataclysm that hit Japan on March 11 might end up having positive effects on the finances of certain parties.
The Internet has already been well supplied with reports and analyses regarding the earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan last month.
The death toll is expected to go well beyond 18,000 and this is not counting all the homeless and the ongoing radioactivity issues.
Specifically, the nuclear power plant in Fukushima ended up with a damaged reactor that has still not been brought under control and is leaking high amounts of radiation.
Meanwhile, analysts on the IT segment scrambled to see what this all will mean for the industry, but it looks like quite a bit of irony may arise.
While some facilities were shut down, either because of damage or power outages, a chip supply disruption is expected sometime over the next several months.
This would, normally, imply shortages, but with the DRAM sector actually being plagued by oversupply and abysmal price points, finances may actually take a turn for the better.
In other words, prices will be bolstered for memory devices, according to iSupply, to the point where revenues will likely go higher than was expected for the year.
For those that want numbers, revenues might just make it to $325.2 billion, corresponding to a 7% boost, more than what was expected in early February (5.8%).
“The earthquake will result in a 1.1 percent reduction in global DRAM shipments in March and April,” said Mike Howard, principal analyst for DRAM and memory at IHS.
“This reduction, along with other factors, contributed to a steadying in contract prices for DRAM in March, which typically is a weak month for sales when prices were expected to decline by as much as 3 percent. The impact of the prices holding steady during this period is dramatic—and will represent a major boost for DRAM revenue for the entire year.”