Late March contract prices for MLC (multi-level cell) NAND flash memory continued their upward trend amid anticipation of reduced supply due to limited availability of silicon wafers and other upstream materials used to make the chips, industry sources have said.
Major providers of chemicals and materials in Japan are seeing production problems caused by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. As many of their facilities are still unable to resume normal operations, there is growing concern that upstream constraints could cause bottlenecks in the global memory industry supply chain, the sources indicated.
Shin-Etsu Handotai, for instance, continues to suspend operations at its Shirakawa facility, which mainly produces 12-inch blank wafers used for making memory devices, with no timeframe for its resumption.
Average contract prices for mainstream 32Gb MLC NAND flash climbed 4.6% to US$5.92 in the second half of March 2011, while quotes for higher-density 64Gb parts rose 3% to US$10.42. Meanwhile, late March prices for 8Gb and 16Gb MLC NAND chips averaged US$3.40 and US$3.74, respectively, up 3% and 2.2%.
NAND flash contract prices for April are expected to accurately reflect the supply situation, the sources believe, adding that it will become clearer how significant the impact of Japan's crisis will be on the NAND flash industry supply chain.
NAND flash is among the key components for consumer electronics products such as smartphones and tablet PCs.