Prices of computer memory chips may rebound during the first quarter of next year as chipmakers cut production to cope with the drastic price corrections of the past few months, Taipei-based market researcher DRAMeXchange said last week.
Taiwanese chipmakers, well-known for their strong cost-saving ability, are now under pressure from price erosion after a 50-percent decline in prices pushed them into the red, or to the brink of losses during the second quarter of this year.
Following the third quarter recovery, prices for dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chips started on a downward trend again, according to DRAMeXchange.
Contract prices for banker double-data-rate (DDR) DRAM modules have fallen 22 percent since September when compared to the previous three months, the researcher said in a statement.
The price for DDR2, which processes data faster dipped by about 32 percent, it said.
"Faced with the prospect of further price drops, DRAM chipmakers started cutting back production," DRAMeXchange said.
Last month, the annual growth for total DRAM output slowed to around 2.65 percent, compared with around a 10-percent increase for September and October, respectively, the research house said.
Combined with a lack of supplies, lower chip prices have stimulated unusually strong demand this month, which used to be a slow month as computer vendors traditionally reduce their inventory dramatically after the annual Christmas shopping spree ends, the report noted.
"That indicates that contract prices are hitting the bottom and there is a chance they may rebound," the research house said.
DRAM chipmakers attempted to inflate the contract price slightly for the second half of this month in light of improved spot prices, but most of them got flat deals, researcher said.
Some still managed to raise prices and extended the price negotiations with their US customers ahead of the Christmas holidays, the researcher added.
Despite the bumpy road toward price hikes, most DRAM makers held an optimistic attitude about the market, according to DRAMeXchange's survey.
They planned to raise prices for the first half of next month and prices would be sustainable during the first half of the first quarter of next year, the researcher said.
The contract price for the benchmark 256-megabit, 400-megahertz DDR DRAM chip was unchanged at US$1.98 from last month, according to the report.
The spot price for the benchmark DRAM chip fell nearly 20 percent to US$2.1 on Friday from an average of US$2.6 in the third quarter.
DRAM makers such as Taiwan's second-largest memory chipmaker Nanya Technology Corp (
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained