Amid fears of delivery status, some brokers/traders were motivated to source more NAND flash chips this week (November 19-26), resulting a sustained uptrend in corresponding prices.
Spot price of a 16Gb (multi-level cell) MLC NAND flash chips grew by 1% to US$3.81 this week. The price of the same architecture 32Gb chips also grew by 4% to US$5.62.
The price increase was very much driven by concerns about potential affects on deliveries as tensions rise in Korea. Given that MLC chip prices have been on a downhill trend for a while, traders/brokers were motivated to source more. A positive smartphone shipments outlook further added momentum, inSpectrum said.
But for the DRAM segment, nothing much has been affected by the incident because more vendors are in the process of clearing inventories as the quarter ends. As of the noon session of November 26, spot pricing for 1Gb DDR3 averaged US$1.22, representing a 1% drop.