14 DAY TRIAL // Even though certain market watchers foresee that the prices of NAND chips will keep falling for months, it seems that, at least for now, prices managed to rise somewhat, thanks to the situation on the Korean market.
Those keeping track of such developments will know that the market for semiconductors has not exactly seen its best times lately, the past months having been less that fortuitous for their makers and distributors.
DRAM and NAND ASPs (average selling prices) have been going down, even despite some episodes of mild rebound.
On the DRAM side of things, contract prices are said to be on track to reaching a proverbial bottom in Q1, 2011.
Most recently, it was even predicted that NAND chips would get cheaper and cheaper, to the point where their prices would go down 35 % in 2011.
Now, however, another report made by Digitimes says that spot prices have actually gone up somewhat.
It appears that Korea is going through some troubles times right now and worries arose about possible impact on deliveries.
As such, with prices having been going down for months, brokers and traders sourced more chips.
There is also how smartphone shipments are supposedly going to be favorable in the near future, so prices of NAND Flash chips basically entered a sustained uptrend, at least for now.
For those interested in numbers, the report says MLC (multi-level cell) NAND chips of 16 Gb grew by 1%, to $3.81 this past week.
Likewise, 32 Gb chips saw their price go up to $5.62, by 4% as it were, during the same November 19-26 period.
What remains to be seen is how long it lasts before it again starts to slide down, or if general demand somehow picks up in an unusual way that lets the segment stabilize faster, unlikely though it may be.