The nation’s major suppliers of memory chips and modules saw their stock prices climb by up to 9.97 percent yesterday amid speculation that Samsung Electronics Co plans to raise mobile DRAM prices by about 10 percent on the back of increasing supply constraints.
Adata Technology Co (威剛科技), the world’s second-largest memory module supplier, outperformed its peers as its shares skyrocketed near the 10 percent daily limit to NT$86, or up 9.97 percent.
The performance marked its highest level in more than three-and-a-half years.
Turnover set an all-time high, with 40 million shares changing hands, Taipei Exchange statistics showed.
The company on Friday said that the supply crunch in DRAM chips next quarter might exceed its expectations as increasing demand for smartphones and cloud-enabled servers is squeezing DRAM chip supply.
That would pave the way for another round of price hikes through early next year, it said.
On the demand side, Chinese mobile phone vendors Oppo Mobile Telecommunications Corp (歐珀移動) and Vivo Communication Technology Co Ltd (維沃移動通信) are snatching up memory chips in preparation for product launches next quarter, the Economic Daily News reported yesterday.
The increased buying is adding pressure to the already short supply, it added.
As its supply cannot keep pace with demand, Samsung informed original equipment manufacturers early this quarter that prices for DRAM chips would increase about 10 to 15 percent sequentially, the report said.
DRAM prices have been spiraling upward since the second half of last year, as the world’s top three memory chip makers keep a tight rein on capacity expansion, it said.
Samsung, SK Hynix Inc and Micron Technology Inc are expanding DRAM capacities by migrating to next-generation technologies, while investing heavily in boosting flash memorychip capacities, the report said.
The news also helped boost shares of the nation’s major DRAM chip suppliers, Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技) and Winbond Electronics Corp (華邦電子), which surged 5.7 percent and 7.14 percent to NT$79.8 and NT$27 respectively.
The rally helped push the TAIEX to a 27-year high at 10,631.57 yesterday.
To cope with rising demand, Winbond said it plans to invest NT$335 billion (US$11.13 billion) to build a plant, but it has not yet disclosed a time table for construction.
Market researcher TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said that short supply of DRAM chips would continue through this year as global supply is to grow at a slower annual pace of 19.5 percent, compared with 25 percent annual growth in previous years.
However, market demand is growing much faster at 22 percent annually or more, it said.
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