DRAM slump: now it's Europe's turn

Memory prices on the spot market and for forward contracts showed a ten per cent decline in ICIS-LOR's latest world DRAM price survey.

The research company attributes the fall to European doldrums, with a weak Euro pushing up PC prices and pushing down sales.

The spot prices for 128Mb DRAMs (PC-133, 16Mb x 8) for the 30 days to 27 October was $14.57 in Europe, down 9.67 per cent on the 30 day rolling average to Oct 20, $14.93 in North America, down 2.89 per cent and $15.40 in Asia, down 0.81 per cent.

128MB PC-133 DIMM memory modules were down week on week 5.59 per cent in the US to $88.76, 8.25 per cent to $86.03 in Europe, and 8.14 per cent to $76.69 in Asia.

ICIS-LOR is useful as a point of reference. However, the prices are a: not up to date (the trade pays large sums for more timely info) and b: bear only passing relation to the prices paid by the person on the street, as they are what gets quoted to very big customers. ®