Despite the recent adjustments of product mix by suppliers, the supply of server DRAM remained tight in 1Q18, thus resulting in high average selling prices. Consequently, the total revenue of the three major server DRAM suppliers rose by 10.3% sequentially in 1Q18 to US$6.975 billion, according to DRAMeXchange, a research division of TrendForce.
DRAMeXchange, a division of TrendForce, reports that the global DRAM revenue for 1Q18 rose by 5.4% QoQ to a new record high. Prices of graphics DRAM products rose significantly by 15% QoQ in 1Q18, given the relatively low base and the surge of demand from the cryptocurrency mining market. Prices of DRAM products for other application markets also increased by 3-6% QoQ.
The more working days in 2Q18 have brought higher demand for smartphones and notebooks, etc., but the increasing demand cannot offset the high supply resulting from improvements in 3D NAND Flash production capacity and yield rate, says DRAMeXchange, a division of TrendForce. Consequently, the suppliers, who face higher inventory levels, have to further adjust the eMMC/UFS prices downward.
The latest analysis by DRAMeXchange, a division of TrendForce, finds that the interference in pricing by the China’s National Development and Reform Commission in 1Q18 is still having an effect on the mobile DRAM market in 2Q18, causing the quoting to be more conservative. Quotes of mobile DRAM products have not gone up as much compared with quotes of DRAM products for other applications. For discrete mobile DRAM products, the QoQ increases in their quotes for 2Q18 were within 1% on average. The quotes of eMCP products actually fell by 1% QoQ on average due to the slide in NAND Flash prices.
According to the latest report of DRAMeXchange, a division of TrendForce, the global server shipment experienced slight decline in 1Q18, but the demand for CPU, Server DRAM, and other related components remain flat. The demand for server will see obvious recovery in 2Q18, and global server shipment will grow by nearly 10% compared with 1Q18. For 1H18, Dell EMC, HPE, and Inspur will be the top three server suppliers with shipment market shares of 16.6%, 15%, and 7.2% respectively.