Samsung and major customers agree on DRAM price hike: DDR4 up 20%, industry as a whole is going up, sources say

Electronic Times reported yesterday, citing unnamed sources in the industry, Samsung Electronics early this month and major customers to increase the price of DRAM chips to reach an agreement.The specific ratio varies from customer to customer, but the average rate of increase has been determined:

-DDR4 DRAM prices rose on average by double-digit percentages;

-DDR5 DRAM prices increased by single-digit percentage points.

The report mentions an alleged 20 percent increase for DDR4 and about 5 percent for DDR5.

Industry sources familiar with the matter said that Samsung Electronics signed DRAM supply contracts with customers at the increased price, adding that the overall DRAM prices in the semiconductor industry are on the rise.

The report also said that Samsung Electronics raised DRAM prices for the first time this year, which has not been the case for nearly a year.

According to Etoday, citing sources, SK Hynix recently raised DRAM prices by 12 percent, and DRAMs were affected by reduced demand and a supply glut last year.

DRAM was affected by last year’s reduced demand and oversupply, and according to DRAMExchange, the PC DRAM general purpose product (DDR4 8Gb 1Gx8) started a downward trend from the second half of the year, with the average fixed transaction price dropping by 20.59 percent in November last year. Since then, it has remained stable in the first quarter of this year.

A sign of change appeared in April, when Micron, the third largest DRAM manufacturer, pushed prices up. In fact, DRAM fixed transaction prices also began to rise in April. Last month, the price of DDR4 8Gb (1Gx8 2133MHz) for PCs increased by 22.22% YoY. The increase in fixed transaction prices was the first since last April