Samsung Electronics continued to retain its lead in the global DRAM market and managed to boost its share in the third quarter of 2010. On the contrary, fellow companies Hynix Semiconductor, Elpida Memory and Micron Technology all saw their shares in the third quarter slide sequentially on lower sales.
Samsung sold US$4.35 billion worth of DRAM in the third quarter, up 19.1% from the second quarter, according. The rise gave the market leader a 40.4% share of global DRAM revenues in the third quarter, up from 34.3% in the second.
Meanwhile, Hynix, Elpida and Micron all experienced revenue declines sequentially in the third quarter, underperforming the total DRAM industry.
Second-ranked Hynix's market share slipped slightly to 19.8%, affected by a 9% decline in its DRAM ASP. Hynix also saw its output constrained in the third quarter by an unsatisfactory yield rate in 46nm process technology.
DRAM industry revenues in the third quarter increased by a mere 3.4% from the second quarter, despite 15% growth in total production output. The price tracker forecasts that contract prices are likely to fall by more than 30% sequentially in the fourth quarter, and bottom out in the first or second quarter of 2011.
South Korea's share of the global DRAM market expanded to 61.2% in the third quarter from 56.8% in the second. Meanwhile, the share held by Japan and the US slid to 16.3% and 12.2%, respectively, from 18.7% and 14.1% in the prior quarter.