Kingston Technology reportedly will give a hand to its upstream chip providers Elpida Memory and Toshiba, both of which are struggling with excessive inventory. The dedicated memory module vendor plans to purchase chips on a large scale to help digest the suppliers' stockpiles by the end of 2011, according to industry sources.
Hynix Semiconductor is also among Kingston's suppliers that the module maker is looking to support through buying more of their chips, the sources said.
The sources described 2011 as a very difficult year for memory chipmakers, with many of them cash-strapped and looking for funding to survive. Kingston intends to assist its major chip partners to get through these difficult times, the sources observed.
In other news, DRAM spot prices recently have seen a slight rebound as a result of suppliers' production cutback, the sources said. Prices had been falling with 2Gb chips approaching US$0.60, which was near historic lows, the sources pointed out.
As for NAND flash, spot prices have been trending downward with the market entering the low season in the fourth quarter, the sources indicated. But the impact of the upcoming Lunar New Year holdiay should begin to push up demand in January, the sources said.