[Insights] Memory Spot Price Update: DRAM Spot Price Finally Rises as Supply Tightens

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According to TrendForce’s latest memory spot price trend report, the spot price of DRAM has finally seen a slight raise as supply for DDR4 and DDR5 tightens. Samsung has allocated more of its 1alpha nm production capacity to the manufacturing of HBM products, which leads to DDR5’s price increase. As for NAND flash, transactions within the spot market remain sluggish. Details are as follows:

DRAM Spot Price:

In the spot market, there has been a slight decrease in the supply of used DDR4 chips that were originally stripped from decommissioned modules. Moreover, spot prices of DDR4 chips had already dropped to a low of US$0.9 at the end of 2023, so there has been a modest rebound recently. However, there has not been a significant rebound in the demand for consumer electronics. As a result, the price increase for DDR4 chips is expected to be limited. As for DDR5 products, the supply has tightened primarily because Samsung has allocated more of its 1alpha nm production capacity to the manufacturing of HBM products. Additionally, there have been special cases of buyers requesting quotes for DDR5 products recently. Consequently, prices of DDR5 products have registered a slight rise. The average spot price of mainstream chips (i.e., DDR4 1Gx8 2666MT/s) has risen by 1.07% from US$1.875 last week to US$1.895 this week.

NAND Flash Spot Price:

Transactions within the spot market are currently at a sluggish stage, and the occasional appearance of rush orders are unable to provide a support for price increases. It is worth noting that spot traders and several module houses are fighting for orders by cutting down their prices sporadically due to pressure from inventory and funds. On the whole, module houses are still actively seeking for buyer orders in the hope of seeing a need of inventory replenishment during the traditional peak season that is 3Q24. Spots of 512Gb wafers have dropped by 0.33% this week, arriving at US$3.291.