Annual sales of DRAMs compared with the corresponding quarter last year were down 33.5 percent, according to iSuppli.

Japanese supplier Elpida Memory Inc. was the star performer, with a robust increase in its pricing causing its revenue to surge by 50 percent from the first quarter. The Japanese groups DRAM revenues were $745 million in Q2, up from $497 million in the first quarter.

The performance was boosted by a 32 percent rise in its DRAM Average Selling Price (ASP) in the second quarter compared to Q1.

"Elpida accomplished its strong increases in revenue and pricing by expanding its specialty DRAM sales to mobile and consumer applications," said Nam Hyung Kim, director and chief analyst for memory ICs and storage at iSuppli.

Kim added that because of a shortage in DDR3 parts and to buyers' inventory re-stocking efforts, the per megabyte price for DRAM jumped by 18 percent in the second quarter, "an unusual increase for a market that customarily sees its prices decline during each quarter."

This 18 percent rise was much higher than iSupplis previous forecast of a 2.6 percent increase.

Megabyte equivalent unit shipments of DRAM also grew by 14 percent, surpassing iSuppli's estimate of 6.2 percent and resulting in a dramatic improvement in overall market conditions.

The other big winner during the second quarter was Taiwan's Winbond Electronics Corp., whose revenue doubled, rising to $87.6 million, up from $44 million in the first quarter.

Samsung continued to dominate the rankings, with sales of $1.54 billion, for a 34.1 percent market share, and achieving quarter on quarter increase in DRAM revenues of 35 percent. In second place, ahead of Elpida, was Hynix with revenues of $980 million in Q2 for a 21.7 percent global market share, up 36.8 percent on the previous quarter.

Micron Technology Inc. was fourth with sales of $628 million, but this represented an increase of only 29.8 percent that saw its share of DRAM revenue dip to 13.9 percent in the second quarter, down from 14.3 percent in the first quarter.

However, Micron's second-quarter revenue declined by only 15.2 percent compared to the same period in 2008, the lowest level of decrease among the Top-10 DRAM suppliers in the second quarter.

Taiwan's Nanya Technology Corp. also performed relatively well on the year-over-year comparison, with only a 15.4 percent decline in revenue.

"The relatively limited declines of Micron and Nanya, which recently entered a partnership, showed that the companies are seriously striving to increase their scale to become more competitive in the market," Kim said.

The market trackers suggest the recent shortage of DDR3 DRAM will persist through the end of this year, and that limited capital investments will continue to delay the migration to the 5x nanometer process until the first quarter of 2010. Until that time, DDR3 supply will continue to be tight in the market.

By: DocMemory
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