LPDDR supply and demand tightens, and the average price is expected to rise by 7-10% in the second quarter

According to Jiwei.com, in March, terminal brands released new products in a concentrated manner, and the average storage capacity of each unit increased. In the 5G era, large-capacity storage has gradually become a rigid demand, and coupled with product upgrades, demand continues to rise. According to Sigmaintell's latest forecast in March, embedded storage entered an upward channel in the second quarter, but affected by the price increases of many components such as Driver IC, PMIC, and batteries, the cost pressure of the whole machine BOM has intensified. In this context, if the embedded storage price increases too much, there may be a risk that the terminal will temporarily postpone upgrading the storage capacity to reduce costs.

In terms of MCP, terminal demand remained high in March. Some terminal manufacturers showed signs of lowering installation demand in the second quarter, but the overall demand for embedded storage was still higher than expected. Due to tight supply and demand, the average price of MCP is expected to continue to rise in the second quarter, and the increase in small capacity will be higher than that of large capacity. In order to ease cost pressure, some small-capacity low-end products have a trend of switching to separate components (LPDDR+eMMC).

In terms of LPDDR, there have been frequent launches of new mid- to high-end machines recently, the demand for LPDDR is strong, and supply and demand are tightening. The average price of LPDDR is expected to increase by about 7% to 10% in the second quarter.

In terms of Nand Flash, due to the tightening supply of mobile phone chips, the price of 5G smartphones has slowed down, and flagship and high-end smartphones prefer to use large-capacity storage to lock in higher price segments. On the supply side, due to the tight supply of controllers, UFS may face the risk of price increases in the second quarter. In the medium and long term, there is still room for Nand prices to fall in the second half of the year as the original factory process upgrades.