Samsung Raises 3D NAND Pricing Following YMTC Blacklisting

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Samsung reportedly trying to capitalize on YMTC's problems

Samsung
(Image credit: Samsung)

Samsung has increased pricing of its 3D NAND flash memory devices by 10% in the first half of December, following blacklisting of China-based YMTC by the U.S. Department of Commerce. Since some PC makers suspended their work with Yangtze Memory for now, demand for 3D NAND from other makers increased, which is why Samsung increased its quotes, according to a DigiTimes report.

U.S. politicians publicly called YMTC a threat to national security in the last couple of months after it got into the DoC's Unverified List (UVL). As a consequence, Apple decided to withhold from buying 3D NAND from Yangtze Memory even for iPhones bound to be distributed in China.

Apparently, other PC OEMs followed suit and suspended their work with the Chinese flash memory manufacturer, either because they did not want to get involved in a political scandal or because they were unsure whether YMTC could supply enough memory on time, now that it can't get tools from U.S.-based companies without an appropriate export license issued by the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security.

As a result, demand for 3D NAND memory produced by other makers — including Micron, Samsung, and SK Hynix — increased and market leader Samsung even decided to increase its 3D NAND prices to take advantage of the situation, the report suggests.

It is unclear how Samsung's increase in contract 3D NAND pricing for 1H December will affect prices of 3D NAND in general and solid-state drives in particular. Quotes for 3D TLC memory have been stagnating for months, so a slight increase will be a positive sign for flash memory manufacturers. Meanwhile, Samsung hardly sells a lot of 3D NAND to competing SSD manufacturers, especially those companies produce some of the best SSDs out there, so we shouldn't see a significant impact on SSD prices because of Samsung's actions.

What remains to be seen is when reduced 3D NAND output by Micron, Samsung, and SK Hynix will have an actual impact on the market. TrendForce believes that since actual device manufacturers have loads of 3D NAND at hand, the impact of production cuts will not be seen in Q4 2022 and makes no projections for Q1 2023.

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Anton Shilov
Anton Shilov
Contributing Writer

Anton Shilov is a contributing writer at Tom’s Hardware. Over the past couple of decades, he has covered everything from CPUs and GPUs to supercomputers and from modern process technologies and latest fab tools to high-tech industry trends.

20 Comments Comment from the forums
  • TechieTwo
    Some folks have no scruples and will exploit people any time that they can. Customer should remember this for future purchases if they get bent over when in need.
    Reply
  • dimar
    I gave up on Samsung when they removed the microSD from the newer phones.
    Reply
  • vertigo_2_20
    I don't care much for Samsung, either, or for the price increases, especially since SSD prices only just recently finally started dropping, but this isn't just exploitation, it's supply and demand. Also, they've probably been selling cheaper than they should have been to compete against China's overly cheap production based on slave labor, low wages, reduced R&D costs due to stealing IP, and government backing. Much of Chinese manufactured goods are unfairly priced which leads to difficulty or inability to compete and ends up creating artificially low prices in the short-term but hurts the industry and therefore the consumer in the long-term. Similar to Walmart/Amazon (which, uncoincidentally, have been able to do so largely through the sale of Chinese goods). So it's hard to blame Samsung et al for "taking advantage" of the fact they can actually price their products appropriately for a change instead of having to compete with unrealistic pricing.
    Reply
  • vertigo_2_20
    dimar said:
    I gave up on Samsung when they removed the microSD from the newer phones.

    That and the insane bloat, inability to root, and their general Apple-like attitude of "we know what you need/want better than you." My current phone is a Samsung but only because I got a ridiculous deal on it. Deal or not, I doubt I'll get another. Unfortunately, not many companies make good phones anymore, and even fewer make good tablets.
    Reply
  • Alvar "Miles" Udell
    I gave up on Samsung drives when they raised prices beyond the competition despite having lower performance. I'm giving up on Samsung phones after my current one because the S22+ is hot garbage and the subject of at least two lawsuits. I wish them only bankruptcy.
    Reply
  • hotaru251
    vertigo_2_20 said:
    That and the insane bloat, inability to root, and their general Apple-like attitude of "we know what you need/want better than you." My current phone is a Samsung but only because I got a ridiculous deal on it. Deal or not, I doubt I'll get another. Unfortunately, not many companies make good phones anymore, and even fewer make good tablets.
    I can only use Samsung phones.

    One UI is just so nice...

    also reliable.
    I still have a gs8 running strong 5 1/2 yrs later.
    Reply
  • vertigo_2_20
    I'm the opposite. Don't really care for One UI and certainly don't care for all the crap that comes preinstalled that I can't get rid of. And while they pioneered split-screen in Android, they've for some reason done away with it and replaced it with this much worse pop-up view garbage. I will say my Samsung tablet (Galaxy Tab S2 8.0) still does really well, especially being 7 years old. For a while the only thing I would buy from Samsung was their SSDs, since they made good hardware but crap software/drivers/firmware (almost every "smart" Samsung device I've owned or used has been problematic and not very smart). Then SK hynix started releasing drives that are more efficient and cheaper and at least close in performance, and then tons of people started reporting receiving smaller drives than ordered when buying Samsung and nothing was done about it, leaving many of them screwed. So yeah, I'm done with them as well. I just don't necessarily entirely fault them for this. After all, there's still plenty of competition. If that weren't the case, this would be more of an issue.
    Reply
  • Co BIY
    vertigo_2_20 said:
    I don't care much for Samsung, either, or for the price increases, especially since SSD prices only just recently finally started dropping, but this isn't just exploitation, it's supply and demand. Also, they've probably been selling cheaper than they should have been to compete against China's overly cheap production based on slave labor, low wages, reduced R&D costs due to stealing IP, and government backing. Much of Chinese manufactured goods are unfairly priced which leads to difficulty or inability to compete and ends up creating artificially low prices in the short-term but hurts the industry and therefore the consumer in the long-term. Similar to Walmart/Amazon (which, uncoincidentally, have been able to do so largely through the sale of Chinese goods). So it's hard to blame Samsung et al for "taking advantage" of the fact they can actually price their products appropriately for a change instead of having to compete with unrealistic pricing.

    Hopefully higher prices also allow for a plan for capital investments for increased production.

    I have come to believe that it is impossible to have "free trade" with "unfree" countries.
    Reply
  • vertigo_2_20
    Co BIY said:
    Hopefully higher prices also allow for a plan for capital investments for increased production.

    I have come to believe that it is impossible to have "free trade" with "unfree" countries.

    Agree with the second statement 100%, and I like the phrasing. As for using the higher revenue/profits toward capital investments and more production, unlikely. Much more likely it will go toward the bottom line to boost stocks and provide higher payouts to shareholders.
    Reply
  • samopa
    Alvar Miles Udell said:
    I gave up on Samsung drives when they raised prices beyond the competition despite having lower performance. I'm giving up on Samsung phones after my current one because the S22+ is hot garbage and the subject of at least two lawsuits. I wish them only bankruptcy.

    I had bought 10 Firecuda 510 2TB NVME drives, 2 of them fail before 1 year, the rest fail before 2 years (100% failure rate in 2 years), I also had bought more than 50 Samsung NVME drives (from 950Pro to 980Pro), none of them failed until now (some of them is more than 5 years old). I also had bought 2 ADATA SX8200Pro 2TB drives that failed after 3 years.

    So in term of drives (SSD), my vote is on Samsung.
    Reply