DRAMeXchange, a division of TrendForce, reports that sales of mobile DRAM surged in the third quarter as the smartphone industry was in its traditional inventory buildup season and the global DRAM market enjoyed an across-the-broad price increase. Consequently, the mobile DRAM revenue for the quarter rose by about 16.8% sequentially to around US$4.59 billion.
The latest research from DRAMeXchange, a division of TrendForce, finds that the global DRAM market in the first quarter of 2017 will benefit from the stock-up activities ahead of the Chinese New Year holidays and the widespread expectations of tight supply. The average contract price of PC DRAM 4GB modules is estimated to rise by around 15% sequentially in next year’s first quarter to reach US$20. At the same time, the global DRAM market will see an across-the-board price hike that encompass DRAM for server, mobile and specialty applications. Despite off-season effect, the DRAM market will still be booming in the first quarter of 2017.
In response to the rise in worldwide shipments and memory content per box for smartphones, DRAM suppliers since the second quarter have gradually reduce their output of PC DRAM while increasing their server and mobile DRAM production. Consequently, prices of PC DRAM started to rise in the third quarter as supply tightened. The price hike for PC DRAM also pushed up prices for DRAM in other applications at the same time. According to DRAMeXchange, a division of TrendForce, global DRAM revenue for the third quarter rose about 15.8% sequentially on account of this recent price uptrend.
Global market research firm TrendForce has lowered the projected annual growth rate of smartphone production worldwide for 2016 to 2.5%. Though shipments from Chinese smartphone brands have been fairly strong, other international brands have suffered significant shipment declines, thus constraining the growth in the overall production.
Global market research firm TrendForce held its IT Industry Forecast for 2017 on November 10 in Room 101 of National Taiwan University Hospital (NTUH) International Convention Center. Below is a summary of presentations made by the analysts at the event’s afternoon session: