The effect of the collective production reduction of global memory original factories has initially appeared

On April 17, Lansheng Technology News, Samsung Electronics recently notified distributors that they will no longer sell DRAM (dynamic random access memory, also known as memory chips) at a lower price than the current price.

Market research agencies predict that although the price decline of DRAM and NAND Flash (data-type flash memory chips) is expected to converge in the second quarter, the price is on a downward channel, and it remains to be seen whether the overall price of memory chips will stop falling and stabilize.

In the past year, due to factors such as the weak consumer electronics market and shrinking server demand, global memory prices have continued to fall. Due to the increase in losses in the storage business dragging down the overall performance, Samsung Electronics recently announced that it will join the production reduction camp in order to improve the market situation of oversupply of memory.

Earlier, memory manufacturers such as SK Hynix, Micron, Western Digital, and Kioxia have already started reducing production. At the same time, many original factories have lowered their capital expenditure plans for 2023. Among them, SK Hynix has shrunk by half compared to last year, and Micron has shrunk by about 40% compared to last year.

According to a report released by TrendForce, in the fourth quarter of 2022, #Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, and #Micron together accounted for 95.8% of the global DRAM market share, and the above five memory manufacturers together accounted for 96.9% of the global NAND Flash market share .

The industry believes that the first quarter is the biggest off-season in the whole year, and the demand for stocking will increase quarter by quarter. Coupled with the gradual recovery of consumer demand, the gradual release of inventory pressure and the further reduction of production by the original factory, it is expected that the second quarter may be the lowest point of this cycle, and the storage market may Stabilize in the third quarter at the earliest.

Analysts said that due to the fact that the current inventory is still high and large module manufacturers have no intention of raising purchase quotations, although some DRAM prices may rise in the short term, it is difficult to return to the overall price increase trend.