DDR3 prices are soaring, and the shortage of production capacity is unlikely to improve in the short term

According to foreign media reports, the increasingly serious DDR3 shortage has caused prices to soar, and Samsung Electronics has therefore slowed down its plans to reduce low-density DRAM production capacity.

According to statistics, during this wave of rising prices, the price of Samsung's 2Gb DDR3 rose from US$0.95 to around US$3, setting a new record high. Samsung's 4Gb DDR3 was also in short supply, and demand continued to be strong. After the Spring Festival, the price had risen to more than US$3.3, and many factories accepted high prices to replenish stocks. Taiwan memory manufacturer Nanya Technology could not even meet half of the needs of large customers, so it had to give up the needs of small customers and work hard to retain large customers. In this round of shortages and price increases, Nanya Technology even raised prices before Samsung.

In 2020, Samsung and Hynix both reportedly converted some memory production lines to CIS sensor production capacity. Due to the continued strong demand for 5G, AI, laptops, tablets, game consoles, etc. in recent months, the reduction in memory production capacity cannot meet the strong demand. During the Spring Festival, Samsung's Austin factory lost power, which made the already tight production capacity even worse. In addition, the earthquake in Japan and the snowstorm in Texas have dealt a huge blow to the extremely tight semiconductor production capacity. The industry predicts that the second round of memory shortages will be difficult to improve in the short term.