Strong DDR3 demand in slow season and spot price is up to US$3 along with the upward contract price in January.

With the short-term ups and downs from mid-Dec. DDR3 1333Mhz 1Gb spot price has climbed 23% to US$3.01 in 1/8 from US$2.45 at 12/17. According to DRAMeXchange, PC shipment with DDR3 platform will reach 60% of total PC shipment in 1Q10, which is attributed by the aggressive migration plans by PC-OEMs. Also, 1Q10 DDR3 demand will likely sharply rise since Intel plans to pull up the DDR3-support chipset portion to 60%. Tight DDR3 supply will happen in the slow season. That is, DRAM vendors expect DDR3 will have the sustainable upward pricing momentum in January.

Given the tight DDR3 supply in contract price market, DDR3 supply in spot market has come to shortage while price is up to US$3. In contract market, PC-OEMs have claimed for extra demand to DRAM vendors with the concern for DDR3 shortage. We DRAMeXchange expect the upward DDR3 pricing trend in January will likely happen. With the strong boosting DDR3 demand from 1st-tier PC-OEMs, DRAM vendors take 1st-tier PC-OEMS as the first priority for the order fulfillment and hardly fulfill the demand from 2nd&3rd tier PC-OEMs. Regarding both from spot market and contract market, DRAM market shows the strong momentum in slow season with the boosting demand for DDR3.