14 DAY TRIAL // As some end-users may know, the average selling prices for NAND and DRAM chips have been falling gradually, because of general weak demand, and it seems this will continue to be the case even though demand is likely to temporarily pick up in China.
China is one of the larger markets for semiconductors but has been celebrating a week-long holiday, which means that demand was directly influenced, although not too radically.
Now that said holidays are over, prices are expected to pick up somewhat, or already have since local traders and brokers reported that demand grew for both DRAM and NAND before the holidays were even over.
According to a report made by Digitimes, China-based buyers are believed to have consumed most of their inventories of such chips during the holidays.
As such, now that said buyers are replenishing their inventories, prices have begun to rise, although this trend is unlikely to persist in the long term.
According to the report, inSpectrum outlines that the growth momentum led to a mild price rise only in the October 4-8 period.
In the case of DRAM, some vendors preserved their competitive quotes for eTT (effectively tested) chips at channels.
For those interested in numbers, on October 8, spot prices of 1 Gb DDR3 fell by 2% to US$1.78, while DDR2 of the same capacity dropped to US$1.79.
Conversely, the spot price of 16 Gb MLC (multi-level cell) NAND flash decreased by 1%, to US$4.26, while the 32 Gb MLC actually rose 2%, to US$5.24.
It is interesting to note that, even though there might be a mild price rebound, the downward trend will persist.
Still, there does not seem to have been inflicted any serious damage, at least not if Micron's Q4 FY 2010 results are anything to go by.
Apparently, even with all the drops in ASP and weakening demand, the company still scored significant revenues and operating income. What remains to be seen is how things actually progress.