Global DRAM revenues reach a record high in Q2

While the global DRAM memory industry’s output value hit a record high in the second quarter of the year, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, South Korea’s two largest memory chip makers, dominated the global market with the combined share of over 70 percent over the period.

The industry’s output value grew by 11.3 percent from the previous quarter to 25.69 billion dollars, according to data from market research firm DRAMeXchange Tuesday. Samsung Electronics’ share reached 43.6 percent with the revenue of 11.27 billion dollars, a quarterly increase of 8.2 percent. SK Hynix saw its revenue jump by 19.5 percent to 7.685 billion dollars, accounting for 29.9 percent of the market. The two companies had a combined share of 73.5 percent, 0.7 percentage point higher than the previous quarter (72.8 percent).

Though PC DRAM contract prices are rising in the third quarter, it is unlikely that the prices will register significant growth in the fourth quarter as major suppliers will have their additional new capacities come online while growth on the demand side is fairly limited, DRAMeXchange said.


Ji-Hyun Kim jhk85@donga.com