The NAND Flash market has witnessed a slight oversupply in 1Q18. The growth momentum remains weak in 2Q18 although the demand increases, according to DRAMeXchange, a division of TrendForce. It is expected that the slight oversupply in NAND Flash market will remain and the prices will continue to decline.
The LED packaging market has witnessed steady growth over the past year, says LEDinside, a division of TrendForce. According to LEDinside’s latest industry report, the annual revenue of global LED package market was US$15.975 billion in 2016, and reached US$18.035 billion in 2017. Based on the revenue of 2017, the top three LED package suppliers worldwide were Nichia, OSRAM Opto Semiconductors, and Lumileds, while MLS from China climbed to fourth place thanks to its significant capacity expansion efforts.
The Trump administration on April 4, 2018 published a list of 1300 Chinese exports and proposed to apply a 25% tariff on these products. However, the proposal would have limited impact on LED companies in China and Taiwan, according to LEDinside, a division of TrendForce. This is because the LED products included in the list are mainly intermediate goods, including wafers and backlight products. These products account for only a small proportion of all the LED products that China exports to the US market, while most of these intermediate goods produced by Taiwan LED companies are shipped to China.
The average and the highest contract price of mainstream DDR4 4GB modules are still at US$33 and US$34 respectively in March, according to DRAMeXchange, a division of TrendForce. On the whole, contract prices of PC DRAM have seen an average increase of around 5% in 1Q18 compared with 4Q17. Nitrogen supply issue at Micron Memory Taiwan may prolong current tight supply in DRAM market, and is expected to push up contract prices of PC DRAM by 3% in 2Q18 compared with 1Q18.
The sales of iPhone X turned out to be less than market expectation, so Samsung has lowered the utilization rate of OLED production lines. The tight supply of OLED panels over the past two years has also been eased. According to WitsView, a division of TrendForce, Apple has initiated the trend of OLED panels, and it is estimated that the penetration rate of OLED panel in smartphones will reach 46% by 2021. Mini LED is overwhelmed by OLED’s technology maturity and competitive costs, so it might be hard for Mini LED to grow in the smartphone market in short term.