‘Prices for PCs will continue to rise sharply for months to come’

The prices that consumers of large quantities of PC dram have to pay for the memory increased by 30 percent in the last quarter of 2016. These so-called contract prices are expected to rise further in the current quarter.

Due to a supply shortage, PC dram contract prices may rise 40 percent in the current quarter and buyers should expect a price hike in the next quarter as well, reports DrameXchange, a research firm that focuses on the memory market.

This is due to the high demand for dram for smartphones. Many smartphones were sold in the last quarter of the year. In the run-up to that period, memory manufacturers had already started scaling back DRAM production for PCs to focus on mobile DRAM.

Samsung is the market leader in the memory sector, with a share of 47.5 percent. The Korean SK Hynix takes 26.7 percent of the market and the American Micron has a market share of 19.4 percent.

Although these are contract prices, memory stick manufacturers do pass the prices on to the consumer. The price increase from the end of 2016 to the beginning of 2017 can also be observed in the Pricewatch for dram products. It’s not just about dram prices, the prices for nand memory are also on the rise.

Price development of Kingston HyperX Fury black HX318C10FBK2/8