Memory chip prices to soar in 4th quarter, analysts say
Despite the current downward spiral of memory chip prices, the semiconductor industry is expected to enter a long-term boom in the fourth quarter of this year, analysts said yesterday.
Analysts at Hyundai Research Institute said in a recent report that the price of 64-megabit DRAMs, the most widely used memory chip today, has fallen to between $7.7 and $8.5 per chip on the global spot market.
It is anticipated to decline further to around $6.4 in the fourth quarter of this year, before bouncing back at the start of a long-term boom, which could last at least until 2002.
The research institute, which is affiliated with the giant Hyundai Group, also said the global chip industry will be shared by the big three players - Korea's Samsung and Hyundai and Micron Technology of the United States.
"As a result of production reduction and withdrawal from the chip business by Japanese and Taiwanese players, the industry is expected to be reshaped into a triangle of Samsung, Hyundai and Micron," said a Hyundai researcher.
Now that Hyundai Electronics Industries has taken over LG Semicon, the analysts said Korean chipmakers' global market share will grow to 45 percent by 2002.
The optimist forecast comes at a time when a downward spiral of chip prices shattered a brief period of price stability. The current declining curve is threatening to take away breathing room from beleaguered domestic memory chipmakers. Last year, the industry was hit hard by plummeting prices caused by oversupply. Ensuing cutbacks in plant investments and production stoppages by major players helped them emerge from a supply glut.
Updated: 05/25/1999 |
