The memory spot market was quiet this week (January 17-21) ahead of the upcoming Chinese New Year (early February), according to inSpectrum.
All mainstream parts in the DRAM spot market saw a mild sequential price drop. Some brokers/traders from the Greater China area did look for DDR3 this week, but orders were small, inSpectrum said.
In the NAND flash market, prices went up mildly for the triple-level cell (TLC) segment, as shrinking supply of multi-level cell (MLC) parts prompted some buyers to source TLC as alternatives. But the overall price trend still was going down as overall transactions shrank due to the approaching holidays.
inSpectrum expects the spot price trend to remain stable through Chinese New Year, with little likelihood of vendors/brokers dumping parts into the channel to spark a price crash.
As of noon of January 21, spot prices of 1Gb and 2Gb DDR3 averaged US$0.96 and US$1.54, respectively, both flat on a sequential basis. Spot prices of 16Gb and 32Gb MLC NAND flash both dropped 2% to US$4.28 and US$5.82 respectively, while the 32Gb and 64Gb TLC segments each posted a 1% rise to US$4.08 and US$7.04, respectively.