NAND flash price falls to slow
Siu Han, Taipei; Jessie Shen, DIGITIMES
Friday 19 April 2019
digitimes.com
NAND flash prices are expected to fall less than 10% sequentially in the second quarter of 2019, and will likely stop falling later this year, according to industry sources.
Having fallen since 2018, NAND flash prices dropped further in the first quarter of 2019, said the sources. Samsung Electronics started cutting its NAND flash quotes in the first quarter aiming to clear out inventory, sending other NAND flash chipmakers following suit, the sources indicated.
Samsung is likely to continue its low-price strategy, but at a moderate pace, in the second quarter, the sources noted. Meanwhile, other NAND flash chipmakers intend to not follow suit this time given that prices are approaching their cash costs, the sources said.
NAND flash chipmakers have seen their inventory levels pile up since the second half of 2018, due mainly to a slowdown in demand for datacenter applications. Inventory build-ups already prompted Samsung to take the lead in cutting prices, the sources suggested.
Meanwhile, falling NAND flash prices are driving greater SSD adoption in PCs and other client devices, while the memory content per box for smartphones and other end devices continues to increase. End-market demand is expected to rise starting from the third quarter, bringing stability to NAND flash prices, the sources said.
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