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Making money is so DRAM easy for some memory-flingers

Another record revenue quarter ... even as drought eases

While we are recovering from the global DRAM shortage, there's still enough of a drought for chip-slingers to rake in record revenues.

PC, smartphone, server and other DRAM component sales pulled in about $16.5bn in the second quarter of 2017, according to analysis by DRAMeXchange.

A spokesperson for TrendForce said there had been a year-on-year increase in the neighbourhood of 81.5 per cent.

DRAMeXchange predicts that component prices will continue to rise for the rest 2017 because of "tight supply resulting from the lack of major fab expansion plans" and "yield issues with leading-edge processes".

The previous revenue record was about $14.1bn for the first quarter of 2017.

In its second quarter analysis, DRAMeXchange notes that "the undersupply situation was not as severe" and downstream OEMs were able to expand their inventories. But average selling prices for PC and server DRAM still went up 10 per cent from the first quarter. Mobile average selling prices rose 5 per cent.

As in the previous quarter, Samsung took top place (about $7.6bn, 46.2 per cent share of the market) followed by SK Hynix ($4.5bn, 27.3 per cent) and Micron Group ($3.6bn, 21.6 per cent).

Operating margins went up again and will likely continue rising, DRAMeXchange reports.

Lesser publications might suggest the DRAM makers have exploited the mismatched supply and demand situation that they helped to create, but El Reg isn't nearly so cynical. ®

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