Spot market prices for PC-use (standard) DRAM have risen by an average of 5%, with quotes for 4Gb DDR3 chips increasing 6% to US$2.7-2.8 and those for 2Gb DDR3 chips rising by 2.3% to US$1.5, according to sources with Taiwan-based makers.

The price hike was mainly because DRAM makers have allocated more production capacity to producing mobile RAM and server DRAM and therefore the total capacity available for PC-use DRAM has decreased, the sources said.

The proportion of global DRAM production capacity for PC-use DRAM will drop from 44% in 2012 to 32% in 2013, the sources cited research companies as indicating. Samsung Electronics is expected to share 40% of global PC-use DRAM shipments in 2013, and SK Hynix and Micron Technology each will share 25%, the sources noted.