DRAM spot prices rebounding

Josephine Lien, Taipei; Jessie Shen, DIGITIMES [Friday 14 December 2012]

Spot market prices for standard DRAM have been appreciating since the beginning of December, due to slow growth on the supply side amid chipmakers expanding mobile and server DRAM production.

DRAM makers have gradually reduced commodity DRAM output in favor of mobile and server DRAM, according to sources at module houses, adding that prices at the spot market have rallied over the past week.

Spot prices for mainstream 2Gb DDR3 chips, which had fallen to as low as US$0.60, rebounded to US$0.85-0.95 recently, the sources noted. The rally in spot prices is expected to boost contract prices, the sources said.

According to DRAMeXchange, spot prices for 2Gb DDR3 chips have soared 14.6% thus far in December arriving at about US$0.94. With the spot prices now surpassing contract prices for the second half of November, contract prices are set to become stable and start to rebound in December, said DRAMeXchange.

Late November contract prices for 2Gb chips came to US$0.80 on average, falling at a slower pace than in previous months, DRAMeXchange disclosed.