DRAM forecast to sink below $1 in Q4

DRAM is forecast to plummet through the $1 barrier before the end of the year.

The DRAMeXchange forum has revised its estimate that $1 time would occur in Q1 2002, and now reckons Q4 2001. It has stated that some prices are already touching as low as $1.15. The positive outlook offered on the scenario was that the sooner the price dipped below $1.00, the sooner serious reaction would occur, such as the closing down plants and cutting back of production.

Dave Flack, sales director of UK memory supplier Memory Plus, concurred. In his opinion, "nothing will make the price go up until a plant gets closed or someone gets out the business". He added that the price erosion has meant that his business has had to sell "ten times as much in order to stand still." He is hoping that the release of Windows XP will stimulate some demand, but is not optimistic that it will be too significant before next year.

Meanwhile the rolling average price of 128Mb DRAMs (PC133, 16Mx8) for the period from August 16 to September 14 for large volume users dropped to $1.90 for Europe, representing a week on week decline of 7.54 percent, according to research group ICIS-LOR, Nikkei Market Access reports, via Asiabiztech.

As demand for Pentium 4 chips has increased, due to dropping prices, trade in Direct RDRAM chipsets has simultaneously been driven up, exacerbated by a shortage of synchronous DRAM chipsets, says the Nikkei Market Access report. Of the three regions surveyed, Europe had the highest price, with North America coming in cheapest at $1.76.

As for memory modules, spot prices for PC133 128MB DIMMs in Europe fell 2.23 percent to $13.03. On these prices, Asia came in cheapest at $12.36. ®
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Nikkei Market Access article
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