[World DRAM Prices] Prices Likely to Rise Amid Supply Shortage
June 28, 2000 (TOKYO) -- Prices of DRAM microchips are rising across the globe, with the exception of 128Mb DRAMs for large-scale users in North America.
Supply simply cannot catch up with demand for microchips.
According to a worldwide DRAM price survey conducted by ICIS-LOR, the 30-day rolling average prices of 128Mb DRAMs (PC133, 16M x 8) for large-volume users between May 11 and June 9 registered US$13.54 in North America, US$13.09 in Europe and US$11.37 in Asia. ICIS-LOR is based in London, Houston and Singapore.
The prices of DRAMs fell 2.57 percent in North America, as compared with the previous week (30-day rolling average up to June 2), and they increased 1.05 percent in Europe and rose 0.45 percent in Asia. As for the spot prices of memory modules, 128MB dual inline memory modules (DIMMs, PC133) increased 0.22 percent from the previous week to US$106.76 in North America, they rose 1.21 percent to US$105.83 in Europe and were up 1.18 percent to US$99.30 in Asia.
Among the main reasons for the DRAM supply shortage is a delay in corporate implementation of schedules for microchip die-size reductions and yield-rate improvement. Demand for semiconductors in addition to DRAMs is another factor that's pushing up the DRAM prices. Considering the prevailing level of DRAM prices, producing flash memory or SRAM chips could result higher sales per wafer.
Also, because an increase in DRAM production could cause a major drop in prices, many IC companies are utilizing their production capacity for other semiconductors.
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