Shadowed by a cautious sales outlook among most PC vendors, a mild sequential price drop for DDR3 will continue into the later half of July. The drop in the DDR2 segment has grown more acute, reflecting its legacy role in the commodity memory space, according to the latest data.
Most deals for 2GB DDR3 modules will be settled at US$44 in the later half of July, representing a 1% sequential drop. The price of 2GB DDR2 modules is expected to drop by another 6% at US$36 in the same period.
Despite most vendors not cutting their quotes sharply, they are concerned stronger downside pressure could emerge from August. Most are aware that PC vendors are cautious about their sales in the third quarter. PC vendors, on the other hand, continue complaining about high memory bill-of-material (BOM) costs, and are thus asking for further price cuts.
More PC vendors are mulling deals to settle prices for the entire quarter from late June with some of these negotiations likely to be settled soon. Although PC vendors are asking for cheaper prices, the firm expects vendors to stand firm because of a cautious PC sales outlook across the board.
For the DRAM spot market, overall price trends remained soft. Channel demand has not shown any improvements, except for demand for DDR1. Some traders/brokers have seen growing inquiries for DDR1 from China recently, for use in old PC systems. But the demand upsurge should be temporary.