By Joyce Yang, Market Intelligence Team, DRAMeXchange

Although the growth rate of DRAM spot pricings were narrowed down over the week July 26 to August 1, overall pricings were still on the rise within a 2% range.

DRAM spot prices enjoy mild growth

Spot price for 256Mbit DDR-400 grew by a slight 1.1% and was closed at US$2.73 on August 2. SDRAM prices remained flat over the last week with the price fluctuation kept within 1.5% range. Effectively tested (eTT) memory, continued trending upward with a sequential growth of 1.95% and was closed at US$2.62on August 2.

Traders and distributors, however, were firm on maintaining prices rather than lowering quotes to stimulate demand upon the prediction of upcoming price upward trend. China was the only market that showed relatively higher buying incentive in compare with the USA and Europe markets.

DDR 256MB contract price expected to grow by 2-4% in 1H August

Contract market, on the contrary, is believed to enjoy continual price pick up in the first half of August, followed by the 5-6% growth recorded in the second half of July. Most memory makers are aggressive on proposing a raise of 7-10% while PC OEMs are bargaining for a 2-4% raise only.

Some PC OEMs who source relatively larger DDR quantity have voiced out the tight supply concern. Such gap has encouraged some memory makers slowing down their migration to DDR2 or even cutting DDR2 output amount for earning a better profit.

By Judy Chen, Market Intelligence Team, DRAMeXchange

2Gb and above NAND Flash spot price surge up to 5%

Unlike last month end, NAND Flash spot market this week for high density chips remains feverish. Spot prices for 2Gb and above densities increased 2%-5% making 2Gb, 4Gb and 8Gb to reach USD13.18, USD23.53, and USD44.98, respectively. Overall speaking, supply in the spot market this week is limited. Rumor has it that both Korean suppliers and its agents are not offering NAND Flash and in turn making prices go up. Besides this, market is starting to get a gambling atmosphere. People are all waiting for August’s contract price to come out. With suspect of a stable contract price, players in the spot market believe the spot prices will surely surge.

However, for low density NAND Flash chips, the spot market isn't as lucky as the high density ones. Spot price for 1Gb and below remained stable. We do see some month end pressure for 1Gb in the spot market. This is the only density which agent is having pressure selling.

Micron 2Gb NAND Flash started to show in spot market