DDR SDRAM Prices Drop on Hynix Dumping its Chips

by Anton Shilov
04/30/2004 | 08:02 AM

A report over SiliconStrategies claims that Hynix had dumped significant quantity of its DRAM chips which caused serious reduction of DDR pricing on spot-market. While the report has neither any confirmation nor denials of the facts, it is a very interesting possible move of a company in the market that is on the rise now.

The article cites Fusion Inc, an independent distributor, who had noticed that DDR SDRAM pricing had fallen by more than 10% in the spot-market earlier this month. The price change occurred when Hynix Semiconductor allegedly dumped 5 million 256-megabit DDR SDRAM devices in China, according to a report issued by Fusion on Tuesday.

Fusion said that 32MB (32x8) DDR SDRAM chips fell from the $6.65 range to the $5.30 to $5.90 range per device, depending on manufacturer. 32MB chips with different organization – 16x16 – moved from the $6.80 range to the range of $5.50-$6.00 per chip.

“We expect to choppy DDR pricing over the next several weeks with the 32 x 8 fluctuating between the $5.10 to $5.70 range and 16 x 16 configured product to sell in the $5.65-$6.00 range,” Fusion believes.

Hynix Semiconductor is practically barred from selling its memory chips to the US and EU countries, therefore, to sustain its market share on a high level, Hynix needs to ship a lot of products to Asia, where competition among memory makers is pretty tough.