The latest research from DRAMeXchange, a division of TrendForce, finds that the global DRAM market in the first quarter of 2017 will benefit from the stock-up activities ahead of the Chinese New Year holidays and the widespread expectations of tight supply. The average contract price of PC DRAM 4GB modules is estimated to rise by around 15% sequentially in next year’s first quarter to reach US$20. At the same time, the global DRAM market will see an across-the-board price hike that encompass DRAM for server, mobile and specialty applications. Despite off-season effect, the DRAM market will still be booming in the first quarter of 2017.
Though panel shipments were strong in October, they represented a monthly drop from the much larger shipments in September. WitsView, a division of TrendForce, reports that October shipments of large-size panels (sized 7 inches and above, resolution at WSVGA and above) totaled 66.83 million units, down slightly by 2.4% compared with the prior month.
In response to the rise in worldwide shipments and memory content per box for smartphones, DRAM suppliers since the second quarter have gradually reduce their output of PC DRAM while increasing their server and mobile DRAM production. Consequently, prices of PC DRAM started to rise in the third quarter as supply tightened. The price hike for PC DRAM also pushed up prices for DRAM in other applications at the same time. According to DRAMeXchange, a division of TrendForce, global DRAM revenue for the third quarter rose about 15.8% sequentially on account of this recent price uptrend.
Global market research firm TrendForce has lowered the projected annual growth rate of smartphone production worldwide for 2016 to 2.5%. Though shipments from Chinese smartphone brands have been fairly strong, other international brands have suffered significant shipment declines, thus constraining the growth in the overall production.
Product orders are tapering off across the PV supply chain as some projects that are required to connect to the grid before the year-end deadline are almost completed. Though polysilicon, wafer and cell prices have been on the rise during the past one and half months, the market demand has cooled down a bit. Corrine Lin, assistance research manager of EnergyTrend, a division of TrendForce, stated that prices of polysilicon, wafers and cells will soon experience a small decline.