By Ramdas S, CRN, December 23, 2011, 0945 hrs
For the first time in several months, the contract prices of memory modules have started moving northwards. According to reports by InSpectrum, an agency studying memory market, prices have moved up by 15 percent during past seven days.
However, due to the sluggish market conditions in India, the price movement was not as accentuated. “While the prices have moved up by as much as 20 percent, the impact we feel is more because of the dollar prices. Market is slow,” said Sajjan Parekh, CEO, IndiaITShop.com Bengaluru.
However Ajay Kogta, Country Manager, India Sub-continent, Strontium Technology was more hopeful. “We believe by January we will see prices firming up again. The present demand supply equation has meant that many of us in this business had challenges growing our top lines, since ASP of memory products have come down.”
“We have been told that among all top manufacturers expect Samsung, all others have been below their production costs most of 2011,” he added.
InSpectrum reported that among the global top four DRAM makers, Elpida Memory has reduced production by almost 30 percent, while Hynix Semiconductor and Micron Technology are moving foundries to more profitable NAND flash memory. Market pundits expect that the lower prices would create short supplies soon for a price correction.
Price of a 2 GB DDR3 memory module averaged at Rs 700 while the 4 GB was hovering around Rs 1300 during the third week of December in Bengaluru. The average prices had dipped to as low as Rs 500 and Rs 950 on these modules in November this year. |