Despite of relatively strong season, spot price of DDR3 memory is approaching $3 per 1Gb equivalent, according to DRAMeXchange market research firm. While usually first quarter sales are not high, it is likely that China-based makers of PCs are gearing up for Chinese new-year and the price of memory is increasing.

With the short-term ups and downs from mid-December ’09, DDR3 1333Mhz 1Gb spot price has climbed 23% to $3.01 from $2.45. According to DRAMeXchange, PC shipment with DDR3 platform will reach 60% of total PC shipment already in Q1 2010, which is attributed by the aggressive migration plans by PC-OEMs. Besides, in Q1 2010 DDR3 demand will likely sharply rise since Intel plans to pull up the DDR3-support chipset portion to 60%. As a result, tight DDR3 supply will happen in the slow season and DRAM vendors expect DDR3 will have the sustainable upward pricing momentum in January.  

Given the tight DDR3 supply in contract price market, DDR3 supply in spot market has come to shortage, while the price is up to $3. In contract market, PC-OEMs have claimed for extra demand to DRAM vendors with the concern for DDR3 shortage.

“DRAMeXchange expects the upward DDR3 pricing trend in January will likely happen. With the strong boosting DDR3 demand from the first-tier PC-OEMs, DRAM vendors take first-tier PC-OEMs as the first priority for the order fulfillment and hardly fulfill the demand from second and third PC-OEMs,” said the DRAM market research company.

Tags: DDR3, DRAM, Business