Traders in the memory spot market finally found a price catalyst this week (October 18-22) – the new Apple MacBook Air, which is equipped with a high-density solid-state disk (SSD). A mild demand uptick was seen in the NAND flash spot market, though the upside may be short lived, according to inSpectrum.
As of noon session of October 22, spot prices for 16Gb and 32Gb multi-level cell (MLC) NAND flash were up 2% to US$4.35 and US$5.10, respectively.
The recent launch of SSD-based MacBook Air has served as the major price catalyst as many traders believe the competitive price offering may help boost corresponding NAND flash demand.
Some demand also surfaced from China e-book reader makers again. Since these players can only use chips with 8-bit error-correction code (ECC) configurations, only chips that are fabricated under old processes are compatible. Accordingly, price for Samsung Electronics' 50nm 16Gb is being pushed up.
But the DRAM spot market continues to be slow. Transaction volume shrank further and price continued heading south. Citing major traders/brokers in Taiwan, little positive sentiment can be found to spur price up in the near term,.
As of noon session of October 22, spot price for 1Gb DDR3 was down 3% to US$1.60 and the same-density DDR2 was flat at US$1.79.
DDR3 continues to see heavy price correction pressure as demand is slow across the board. Buyers are not buying or replenishing stock. The acute downside pressure as found in the downgraded DDR3 segment has even spread to the branded segment. Whereas for DDR2, price trend is comparatively stable as market size shrinks.