The price of industry - level SSDs has been raised again, but the increase has moderated, and the overall trading volume has increased with a shrinking quantity!

Driven by supply control at the resource end and trade speculation, the spot prices of 512Gb/1Tb Flash Wafers have been rising continuously for nearly two months, with a cumulative increase of over 20%. Due to the continuously rising costs and the fact that resources are still in the supply - controlled stage, memory module houses have raised the prices of industry - level SSDs again. As the significant price increase of NAND resources has gradually been transmitted to corresponding application terminals, in order to reduce the cost pressure brought by memory chips, PC terminals are accelerating the design - in of SSD solutions based on QLC NAND. Recently, some PC customers have even released large - scale orders for QLC SSDs. However, during the price increase, memory suppliers still strictly control the shipping rhythm. Therefore, the market trend of industry - level SSDs is mainly characterized by an increase in price with a shrinking trading volume.

Since the second quarter, the DDR4 supply from memory manufacturers has shrunk sharply. DDR4 resources in most application markets are basically out of supply. Instead, more production capacity has been shifted to advanced DRAM products such as DDR5 and HBM. At the same time, as the server market can not only absorb a large amount of production capacity but also offers a higher profit margin, it has become the priority for memory manufacturers to ensure supply. Correspondingly, the DRAM supply in the consumer market can hardly be effectively met. In fact, the supply - structural shortage of DRAM resources in the consumer end is more severe.

Specifically regarding prices, last Friday, the prices of Flash Wafers increased across the board. The prices of 1Tb QLC/1Tb/512Gb/256Gb TLC NAND Flash Wafers were adjusted to $6.00/$6.70/$4.20/$3.40 respectively; today, the prices of DDR4 16Gb 3200/16Gb eTT/8Gb 3200/8Gb eTT/4Gb eTT were adjusted to $13.00/$5.20/$5.50/$2.70/$1.10 respectively; the prices of DDR5 24Gb Major/16Gb Major/16Gb eTT were adjusted to $12.00/$8.50/$5.40 respectively.

Although some channel suppliers resumed quotations last week, after accepting a small number of orders based on a certain price increase, they suspended quotations and order - taking again. Recent channel trading activities have disrupted the market. The radical and frequent price increases of some resources such as NAND and DRAM particles have gradually deviated from the reasonable range. Currently, overall, the prices of channel SSDs and DIMMs are in a consolidating. Once the market returns to normal, channel market transactions may resume their normal state soon.

Following the across - the - board price increase of industry - level SSDs last week, quotations were still raised this week. After nearly two months of price - increasing market conditions, the prices of NAND resources have generally reached a high point in nearly a year. Industry suppliers have also increased the prices of corresponding finished products several times following the cost increase. The prices of some SSD products have increased by over 30% cumulatively. The too - rapid price increase of industry - level SSDs is also forcing PC customers to accelerate the introduction and verification of QLC solutions. Some PC customers are actively increasing the stockpiling of QLC SSDs. However, industry suppliers generally have a low willingness to accept orders, and market transactions mainly consist of small orders. Regarding DRAM, due to the comprehensive supply contraction of DDR4 and DDR5 particles recently, some industry suppliers have tried to quote prices to individual customers, but the prices are too high to result in transactions.

The inventory cycle of mobile phone manufacturers is usually less than two months, and the existing inventory has been gradually and rapidly consumed. Given that some memory manufacturers have sent signals of resource price increases in the early stage, but so far, these have not been implemented. Currently, memory suppliers are continuously paying attention to real - time market trends. After memory manufacturers take successive actions, memory suppliers may take further steps.