Memory chips.The worst is over

　　The worst period of global memory sales has passed,and support prices have stopped falling,and DRAM prices have remained flat for four consecutive months.

　　The Nikkei daily reported on Monday that the worst period of global memory sales has passed,and prices have stopped falling as major memory manufacturers such as Samsung Electronics cut production and the surplus has subsided.The price of DRAM,which is used to temporarily store data on smartphones and PCS,stopped falling,and the wholesale price of DDR4 8Gb(bulk trading price)for August 2023 was around$1.48,the same level as the previous month(July 2023),the fourth consecutive month of flat(no decline).Wholesale DRAM prices are determined monthly or quarterly between memory manufacturers and customers.

　　According to reports,DDR4 8Gb product prices since the spring of 2022,a year,plummeted 45%,with the downturn in the market,the performance of various memory manufacturers deteriorated,since the autumn of 2022 began to reduce production,compressed inventory,and with the production reduction effect,the surplus situation is alleviated,but also let the price stop falling.

　　Based on the inventory assets of Samsung Electronics,SK Hynix,and Micron,Sumitomo Mitsui Trust and Banking Co.,LTD.'s chief economist Hayato Yamamoto calculated that the average number of days of inventory turnover in April-June 2023 was 151 days,a 4 percent decrease from the recent record of 158 days in October-December 2022,the longest period in the past 10 years.Due to the improvement in sales,there are also voices in the market that DRAM prices will not fall further.

　　According to data released by the US Semiconductor Industry Association(SIA),global semiconductor sales from April to June 2023 increased by 4.7%from the previous quarter,mainly due to the generative AI wave led by ChatGPT,promoting the demand for AI chips;U.S.research firm Gartner estimates that the AI semiconductor market will grow 20.9%annually in 2023.