Micron reports tonight so we should get our first insite into any potential migration from DRAM to NAND over the next couple of quarters...
digitimes.com
Taiwan memory makers to offer price protection
Hans Wu, Taipei; Carrie Yu, DigiTimes.com [Tuesday 29 March 2005]
Some Taiwan-based DRAM makers will begin offering their customers price protection in response to South Korea-based DRAM makers recently adopting similar policies, industry sources indicated.
However, Nanya Technologies stated that it not heard of any company offering price protection, while sources at Winbond Electronics noted that the company currently focuses on SDRAM and specialty DRAM, while price protection mainly affects the commodity DRAM market.
No other Taiwan DRAM maker was available for comment, while the South Korean makers were also unavailable to comment at the time of publication.
The South Korea-based makers have applied the policies amid expanding DRAM capacity and weak demand, the sources implied. According to the policies, DRAM makers will refund the amount of any price-reduction that occurs within one month of purchase (or up to one quarter in some cases). By implementing price protection, the DRAM makers are making it easier for buyers to place additional orders, the sources pointed out.
According to JP Morgan, DRAM oversupply is likely to widen from 2% this quarter to 10% next quarter due to weaker demand and increasing inventory. Although some international DRAM makers are migrating some of their production from DDR chips to DDR2 and NAND flash production – which may alleviate some imbalance in the market – sources estimate that inventory at DRAM makers will not be significantly reduced until May at the earliest. JP Morgan is less optimistic and believes oversupply will not ease until the fourth quarter.
With global DRAM prices still not stable, price protection will at least prevent buyers from waiting for the market to bottom out before making purchases, the sources explained.
|
