Early August 2010 contract prices for 8Gb to 64Gb multi-level cell (MLC) NAND flash chips have all slid, with the 16Gb segment suffering the largest drop of up to 5%.
Contract quotes for 16Gb MLC chips averaged at US$4 in the first half of August, while 32Gb parts were quoted at US$6.36 on average. The latter fell by up to 2.8%.
Industry sources have commented that demand from system vendors including Apple and Nokia remains brisk, but device makers in the retail channel have been cautious in sourcing chips. Bigger players such as Samsung Electronics and Toshiba continue to benefit from stable orders placed by their contract customers, which will offset the impact of weak retail sales.
In particular, sales in China have been slow due to a government probe of IC component smuggling, the sources said. But local distributors have seen their stockpiles run low, implying restocking demand for the country's upcoming National Day holidays is expected to start picking up at the end of August, the sources believe.
The sources also pointed out that Hynix Semiconductor, Micron Technology and Intel ave insisted on maintaining current prices, and thus talks with downstream device makers about lowering prices have come to a deadlock.
Average spot prices for 16Gb and 32Gb MLC chips edged down 0.53% and 0.37%, respectively, to close at US$4.48 and US$6.99 on August 16.