Memory Chip Market On The Rebound
The demand for memory chips is getting brisk, with prices rising and stocks being rapidly depleted. Industry sources said that the nation's three chip makers, Samsung, LG and Hyundai, have been busy trying to meet the demand, but the three reportedly differ in opinion regarding future market development. After bottoming out in July, the unit price of 64-mega DRAM memory chips reached the US$10 level recently, and even the unit price of the 16-mega DRAM, a conventional chip, has gone up by 30% on average. In addition, PC servers have shown increased demand for new 16-mega DRAM in order to replace the older one to head-off the Y2K bug. Samsung expects a W1 trillion pre-tax profit from the memory chip sector alone this year, and all the three chip makers have called off plans to reduce production, which was originally scheduled to begin this month. The sources said that the mini-boom is expected to continue until the middle of next month. |
