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Report: DRAM Prices to Continue Increasing in April

By - Source: DigiTimes | B 18 comments

The price of DRAMs continued to increase in 2H March 2013 and expected to continue rising in April.


Earlier this month, reports began to surface that vendors would be increasing the retail pricing of graphics cards by 10 to 15 percent due to the rising cost of DRAMs, specifically DDR3 memory. These predictions have now been corroborated from DRAMExchange who noted that in the second half of March 2013, the average price for 4 GB and 2 GB of DDR3 has increased to $23.50 and $14.00, a respective increase of 2.17 percent and 1.82 percent.

DRAMExchange forecasted that the increase will continue through April, the upward momentum will strengthen as OEMs maintain DRAM inventory, and that it is not unlikely for a 4 GB DDR3 module to approach the $30 mark.

On the supply side of the equation, DigiTimes reported that Samsung has made efforts to accelerate its mobile DRAM production due to higher-than-expected demand for the Galaxy S4, which was led to a widened product gap for PC DRAM chips. Due in part to the 6.1 magnitude earthquake in Taiwan and Apple's rumored plan to release more than one phone this year, the tightened DRAM supply situation is expected to further worsen in Q3 and Q4 2013.

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Top Comments
  • 16 Hide
    goodguy713 , April 9, 2013 12:24 PM
    I think its price fixing .. personally ..
Other Comments
  • 9 Hide
    slomo4sho , April 9, 2013 11:31 AM
    And to think that 16 GB was around $50 during this holiday season...
  • 9 Hide
    murzar , April 9, 2013 12:10 PM
    Someone please wake me up from this nightmare!
  • Display all 18 comments.
  • 3 Hide
    thor220 , April 9, 2013 12:20 PM
    These prices will go back to regular levels once DRAM makers have recouped, hopefully. If not it will be another hard drive fiasco where we have BS hightend prices.
  • -1 Hide
    dextermat , April 9, 2013 12:23 PM
    Don't worry it will go down again, pc are not selling anymore :p 
  • 16 Hide
    goodguy713 , April 9, 2013 12:24 PM
    I think its price fixing .. personally ..
  • 9 Hide
    Xu En , April 9, 2013 12:39 PM
    Rational is bullshit - iphone ram demand is a minute fraction of world demand.

    Can you say cartel? Happened before, will happen again - google "DRAM price fixing" or "memory cartel" and form your own opinion.

    Earthquake in Taiwan (8 Apr 2013) affected production - but that doesn't explain the rise.

    Let's name the bitches last time (€331m fine - http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-10-586_en.htm , also multi 100m$ fines and multiple admissions of guilt in the US too..) : Micron, Samsung, Hynix, Infineon, NEC, Hitachi, Mitsubishi, Toshiba, Elpida and Nanya

    But maybe I'm just a paranoid crank this time? State of California and 32 other states don't think so eg http://www.law360.com/cases/50769e27e9be1a076500438d or http://www.law360.com/cases/5075dac5f662aa0c8a00438c ..

    etc etc. Last time the proceedings took 8 years - so don't hold yuor breath for a legally binding decision
  • 3 Hide
    Abion47 , April 9, 2013 1:54 PM
    ...DigiTimes reported that Samsung gas made efforts...


    I didn't know Samsung was going into the gas industry. I guess they'll get sued by Exxon-Mobil soon...
  • 0 Hide
    ITFT , April 9, 2013 4:12 PM
    Well the RAM is pretty cheap these days anyway, so even 10% rise wouldn't make much difference, SHAME of course that it's going up, even though they sell the same chips they used to sell 3 years ago...

    The main problem here In my opinion is that the DDR4 is not out yet, nor it is needed for modern CPU, therefore there is no such boost for new RAM.

    Looks like the PC market is finished, I just hope that sooner or later the manufacturers like Intel for example will realise that they could make more money by lowering the price...
  • 2 Hide
    jerrspud , April 9, 2013 4:29 PM
    Being a DRAM employee, I'll be glad when we stop our three years of loosing money and laying off employees
  • 1 Hide
    InvalidError , April 9, 2013 5:58 PM
    goodguy713I think its price fixing .. personally ..

    If it was price fixing, Elpida would not have gone bankrupt.

    For a good chunk of of the past two years, DRAM manufacturers were selling at or even below cost just to keep their fabs running to avoid the several millions it costs to stop and restart production lines. The price increases simply bring things back to a point where surviving manufacturers can start recovering their losses.
  • 2 Hide
    10tacle , April 9, 2013 7:07 PM
    dextermatDon't worry it will go down again, pc are not selling anymore


    Then what, pray tell, are you wasting your time trolling a PC tech website, there, chief?
  • 0 Hide
    marshal11 , April 9, 2013 10:29 PM
    The day DRAM becomes expensive is the day the world ends. This better not be another scam like what they did with the HDDs. I'm sure they've recovered from the flood, especially since they've been charging about double they used too for HDDs :( 
  • 0 Hide
    tim1935 , April 11, 2013 10:11 AM
    So RAM pricing goes up 1-2% and they raise the price of video cards 10-15%, nice.
  • 0 Hide
    tim1935 , April 11, 2013 10:12 AM
    So RAM pricing goes up 1-2% and they raise the price of video cards 10-15%, nice.
  • 0 Hide
    Dr_plague , September 14, 2013 11:39 PM
    I love reading this in September. The cheapest 4gb and 2gb of ram on newegg right now is $33 and $21..... this is absolutely insane..... price fixing fursure
  • 0 Hide
    InvalidError , September 15, 2013 9:36 AM
    Quote:
    I love reading this in September. The cheapest 4gb and 2gb of ram on newegg right now is $33 and $21..... this is absolutely insane..... price fixing fursure

    If you want to talk about insane, I paid ~$400 for 256MB of RAM 13 years ago so $33 for 4GB still looks ridiculously cheap to me.

    It isn't much of a surprise that 4GB DIMMs have much lower $/GB than 2GB ones since most of the cost of a 2GB DIMM is the DRAM die packaging, PCB, retail/OEM packaging and distribution which are common costs for all DIMM sizes.

    BTW, one of Hynix's DRAM fabs got shut down by a fire last week so expect prices to go up quite a bit.
  • 0 Hide
    andcas7 , October 4, 2013 12:26 PM
    About 1 1/2 years ago, I paid $50 for 8 GB of DDR3 ram, now, same 8GB kit is $93, that is almost twice what I paid, all while SSD prices slowly drop. I will upgrade my HDD to an SSD before I buy another ram kit at these prices.
  • 0 Hide
    mrcyco , October 19, 2013 3:20 AM
    Brought some 8GB hyper x beast for my first build I thought £69 down from £99 was a good price.Then found a review (back Dec 2012) Quoting £44 as the rrp