DRAMeXchange: 1H May NAND Flash Contract Price rose 0% to 12%

Taipei,May 11th,2009-----Average NAND Flash contract price of 1H May, 2009, rose between 0 to 12%. In 1H May, following previous NAND Flash suppliers' allocation policy in April, upstream suppliers provided system makers as their priority and reduced allocation to memory card makers. NAND Flash contract price slightly rose in 1H May due to China’s “Home Electronics down to the country side” Policy and restocking demand of 3G handset upgrade and copycat cell phone market. According to DRAMeXchange.
Due to as low as one-month visibility in NAND Flash market and sustained price surge over the past 4 months, most clients are more conservative in purchasing and keep observing current price trend. However, as NAND Flash suppliers will adjust 2Q09 output pace, DRAMeXchange  expects the contract price to roughly stabilize in the short-term. 
After Mid April, both upstream and downstream NAND Flash suppliers and makers announced their 1Q09 earning release. Most upstream suppliers have still suffered from financial loss though the situation slightly improved when comparing with 4Q08.
 
On the other hand, downstream handset and DSC makers also faced the worst shipment results both in QoQ and YoY. Looking into the previous shipment patterns, the number in 2Q will usually increase while comparing with 1Q. DRAMeXchange expects NAND Flash suppliers to continue to adjust their output growth rate and stabilize NAND Flash price to improve their profitability with gradually recovering downstream demand.
Figure 1, Mainstream 16Gb MLC NAND Flash Contract Pricing Trend, Jan. to May, 2009.