Because there is a slight oversupply in the NAND flash memory market, prices of the chips will continue to decrease, according to market research company DRAMeXchange. The researchers from the company also expect that the supply of NAND chips will continue to outpace demand the coming years.
Demand for NAND chips is traditionally lower in the first half of the year. In the second half of the year, there is the peak season with e.g Black Friday and Christmas. During those days lots of NAND based products are sold. DRAMeXchange therefore expects that the lower prices, caused by the lower demand in the first half of this year, will also contribute to growing shipments of NAND based products. Another reason DRAMeXchange expects the demand of NAND flash memory will increase, is the trend of increasing amounts of storage in smartphones.
All reasons combined should make sure the price of NAND will stabilize by the second half of this year.
To make sure the market is not flooded with NAND chips, which in its turn would drive down prices even further, some manufacturers have decided to slow down their production. One of the consequences is that the next generation 9x-layer NAND flash will not become widely available until 2019, DRAMeXchange expects.
The NAND flash memory market should also prepare for the introduction of Yangtze Memory Technologies Company (YMTC). The company is reportedly backed by the Chinese government and should become a large supplier of NAND chips to ensure Chinese smartphone manufacturers have access to a steady supply of NAND memory.
DRAMeXchange anticipates that the company will not have a large influence on the NAND market this year, but it might become a large competitor to current NAND manufacturers by 2019. If YMTC pumps out large quantities of NAND chips, it could cause NAND prices to drop.
