Spot Register A weekly update

Demand in the open market has recovered since last week. Anticipated shortages on certain items is forcing OEMs to build stock now for their September requirements, writes Marco Fumagalli.

Memory

Prices are slightly softening, since the demand is still somewhat erratic. Some brokers are beginning to reduce inventories and maybe this will impact prices on the short term. 64Mb PC-133 modules are now trading at around $65/67 while 64Mb PC-100 are mostly quoted at $62/64.

Hard Drives

After having reached the lowest point of the year, prices for 10GB and15GB Quantum are now bouncing back to previous levels.

Distribution inventories are very low and local shortages are being reported. Distributors are assuring customers that the product will be available next week, but many are speculating that lower capacity drives are being phased out by Quantum, despite the fact that they are still very popular for entry-level systems.

The 10.2GB LB-A is now being quoted at $72-74 and the 15GB anywhere in the region of $79-84.

Seagate 8.4GB and 10.2GB OEM channel drives are being offered in the market, so expect their prices to drop soon. Shortage are being reported for many SCSI drives, especially for 18GB 7200rpm units

CPUs

Transition to new Intel prices was smooth this time, meaning that the quantity of OEM CPUs in the open market is not significant.

Prices recovered slightly since last week, and the majority of sales are now for PIII 650/667 and PIII 700s in FC-PGA packaging. Prices are around $185 and $215 respectively.