The contract prices of NAND flash chips dropped in the beginning of May, due to an oversupply in the market and a lull in the IT industry, According to the market research firm, in the beginning of May, the price of the 32GB MLC chip stood at US$5.76, a decline of 3.68 percent from the bottom of April. The 32GB TLC chip was US$4.92, down 0.41 percent from the end of April.
The reason for the price decline was twofold,
First, the market for NAND flash applications such as USB drives and memory cards has entered a slow season that traditionally characterizes the second quarter.
Second, an oversupply in the market has also created downward price pressures, the research firm said.
The company attributed the glut to better manufacturing technologies, after many memory chip-makers have entered the 20-nanometer production process.
Meanwhile, the recovery of some memory manufacturers from the March 11 earthquake has taken place at a faster pace than expected,The firm pointed out prices will continue to be low in the short-term, as the oversupply situation is expected to linger throughout the second quarter.
NAND flash chips are non-volatile memory chips, meaning they can store data even when the power of the device is shut off. It is different from DRAM, which is functional only when the power is on.