SAN FRANCISCO — Average selling prices (ASPs) for NAND flash memory chips rose b 3 to 10 percent in the second quarter and are projected to continue rising through the third quarter, according to DRAMeXchange, a market research firm that tracks memory chip pricing.
DRAMeXchange, which is a unit of Taiwan-based TrendForce, said it expects NAND suppliers to post excellent third quarter financial results thanks to slight increases in contract pricing for mobile products like universal flash storage (UFS) and eMMC and solid state drives.
A tight supply of memory chips, particularly NAND and DRAM, is lifting the broader semiconductor industry to what is expected to be the best growth year since the recession recovery year of 2010, when chip sales grew by more than 30 percent. Market research firm IC Insights Inc. forecasts that NAND sales will rise 35 percent this year compared with 2016.
Last week, the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics (WSTS) organization become the latest semiconductor industry market watcher to revise upward its forecast for 2017 sales, saying it now expects chip sales to grow by 17 percent this year.
Alan Chen, senior research manager at DRAMeXchange, said through a statement that suppliers that scaling limitations on planar NAND are pushing suppliers to shift to 3D NAND. This, transition, Chen said, has resulted in a substantial loss in production capacity, leading to tight supply and rising ASPs.
"We expect supply to be under strain for the rest of 2017," Chen said. "Relief will come later in 2018, when the manufacturing of 64- and 72-layer 3D-NAND flash reaches maturity."
—Dylan McGrath is the editor-in-chief of EE Times.
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