Reduction of manufacturing of dynamic random access memory (DRAM) in late 2011 stabilized memory price in the second half of December despite of seasonally low demand.

According to DRAMeXchange, a research division of TrendForce, while the market has entered the traditionally weak PC shipment season, compared with the first half of December, in the second half of December contract price showed a flat price trend. DDR3 4GB and DDR3 2GB average selling price was $16.5 and $9.25, respectively.

Average 2Gb chip price stayed at the $0.88 level. From the market perspective, although there has been no concrete evidence showing that demand will recover significantly in Q1 2012, the decrease in shipment volume caused by several DRAM makers’ previous capacity cuts will undoubtedly benefit demand recovery; some PC OEMs have increased their DRAM purchase volume in order to avoid possible supply insufficiency in the near future.

As Chinese New Year is around the corner, January transaction volume is expected to be affected slightly by the decrease in the number of work days. Luckily, the effects of the prior capacity cuts will gradually be seen, and as concerns of the HDD supply shortage slowly dissipate as well, it is likely that DRAM contract price will see a stable price trend in the near future.

Tags: DRAM, Business