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DRAM prices rocket on spot market

Fifteen dollars a pop? You must be joking

The unthinkable is happening in the DRAM market: prices are shooting skywards. A modest increase in the last couple of months has been eclipsed by spot market prices hitting $15 only two days ago, according to DRAM price gurus ICIS-LOR. Ed Bateman, product manager at memory manufacturer Hypertec, said: "In many cases prices have more than doubled – especially for more sought after parts, such as PC100. If you look at the interest surrounding Rambus, the manufacturers are now focussing an increasing amount of attention on this, consequently supplies of other parts will become reduced." Bateman also pointed to increased demand from the PC makers. "The average desktop PC now uses 100MB of memory, so there is a healthy demand." In the wake of painfully low prices, caused by manufacturers churning out memory like there was no tomorrow (and for some of them there really was no tomorrow) many DRAM makers have cut back on production. Following the inexorable laws of supply and demand, a lack of supply at a time when demand is still healthy, has seen prices go up. Writing for The Register, Alan Stanley, MD of memory distributor Dane-Elec, said: "Worldwide memory overproduction was flooding the market, resulting in constantly falling prices. Not surprisingly, the manufacturers soon grew tired of having their fingers burned. Some got out of the DRAM business altogether, while others cut back production. The problem was simply that they could not make money." One such vendor to cut back on its DRAM commitments is Fujitsu. It is now in discussion with Infineon and Micron to secure DRAM supplies without having to re-enter the market big time. Click here for full story. ®

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