Memory for PCs continues to grow in price and even outstrips the forecasts of the increase in value. In any case, this is evidenced by a fresh report of analysts of the DRAMeXchange division of the trading platform TrendForce. Based on the transactions examined for the first quarter and already concluded contracts for the supply of PC memory in the second quarter, it is concluded that at the very beginning of the second quarter, the average wholesale prices for 4GB DDR4 modules increased by 12.5%. So, if in the first quarter the average wholesale price of the memory module was $ 24, then in April the cost increased to $ 27.
Alas, for the entire second quarter of the memory for the PC will continue to grow in price. This will happen for the reason that for a known shortage with memory slots for PCs (a year ago there was a dangerous bias towards the release of memory modules for servers and mobile memory for smartphones), problems will arise with the development of memory manufacturing technologies with 10 nm technology standards.
The companies Samsung and Micron in the middle of the first quarter of this year began to release, respectively, 18-nm and 17-nm DDR4 chips. Prior to that, Samsung produced 18-nm DDR4 chips primarily for building server memory modules. The beginning of deliveries of DDR4 modules based on 18-nm DDR4 crystals was overshadowed by the high failure of modules in modern laptop platforms. Even there was a rumor that the companies returned a large batch of defective bars, which Samsung then denied. Today, DRAMeXchange experts again say that the company suffers from a high level of marriage in the production of 18-nm memory chips, and from the complexities with the design of memory modules for PCs based on 18-nm DDR4.
As for Micron's 17-nm DDR4, there is also no comforting information. At the moment, the company is carrying out an experimental supply of memory modules on new chips and it is unlikely that they will start mass production on them until the third quarter. As for the company SK Hynix, it does not even try to release memory with the norms less than 20 nm.
The rise in memory prices for PCs will automatically spur the price of server memory and memory for smartphones. Mobile memory will be affected to a lesser extent (for the quarter it will rise by about 5%), and server memory will rise in price by 10-15%.