The shipment performances of Smartphones, Tablets, and Notebooks were relatively weak in the first quarter due to seasonality, according to DRAMeXchange, the memory and storage research division of TrendForce. As a result of the entire NAND Flash market’s oversupply in 1Q 2014, the branded suppliers’ Q1 revenues saw a 6.6% drop compared to the previous quarter, and slid to approximately US$ 7,244 million.
Due to the potentially strong peak quarter performances of smartphones, tablets, and enterprise SSDs, the 2014 NAND Flash bit demand is expected to grow 39% compared to the previous year, whereas total industry output value has a chance of rising 5% YoY to US$ 25.2 billion, according to DRAMeXchange.
The DRAM market became highly profitable last year after transforming into an oligopoly, according to DRAMeXchange, the memory and storage research division of TrendForce. The entire Q1 industry value grew 2% QoQ to reaching new heights at US$ 9.94 Billion. SK Hynix, one of the industry's largest DRAM manufacturers, managed to show a highly noteworthy performance following its recovery from last year's fire accident with operating margin growth jumping from 29% to 36%. As other DRAM manufacturers display similarly impressive performances this year, 2014 is considered an optimal for the entire DRAM industry, TrendForce predicts that the total DRAM industry value will grow 30% YoY to approximately US$ 45 Billion.
Before China’s Labour Day Holiday, the willingness to re-stock NAND Flash components was relatively low according to DRAMeXchange. This is mainly due to the module clients’ conservative attitude towards the future market sales performances and the UFD and Memory cards’ continuous price decline. To prevent profit margins tightening, NAND Flash suppliers began avoiding aggressive price strategies, and became increasingly less willing to give in to their clients’ pricing demands. With market transactions becoming sluggish, as a result, NAND Flash contract prices ended up staying flat throughout the second half of April.
The DRAM market’s transactions have become sluggish starting from 2014, according to DRAMeXchange, memory and storage research division of TrendForce. The spot market vendors and module suppliers' relatively low inventories, DRAM manufacturers' gradual transition from PC DRAM to Mobile DRAM, and market shortages are all key factors affecting the spot market price movements.
