Contract pricing for mainstream DRAM has stabilized in February with most vendors refraining from cutting prices further after seeing falls for six straight months, according to research company,inSpectrum.

Contract price for the mainstream 2GB DDR3 module is quoted flat at US$17, translating to US$0.94 per Gb, for the first half of February. But price of the high-density 4GB DDR3 module has posted a mild 3% sequential drop to US$34, translating to US$1.87 per 2Gb.

Amid an industry consensus that a price bottom is forthcoming, most vendors are not offering further cuts in February, encouraged by a brisk market sentiment that started to show before the Chinese New Year holidays to enable their price negotiation, inSpectrum said.

Some vendors have actually proposed a more than 10% sequential growth in price but without success as OEMs usually do not buy much in early February, the traditional slow season for PCs, inSpectrum explained. But the attempted price hike should help boost optimism for the latter half of the month with other vendors likely to also ask for higher quotes for the first time since June, the firm projected.

Although most OEMs have trimmed their DRAM inventory to about four weeks or even lower, down from about 4-6 weeks as observed in the third quarter of 2010, they have no strong incentives to make big procurement yet. Such a strategy is being strengthened by the recent issues with Intel's 6-series chipsets, which potentially will postpone some PC demand into the second quarter, inSpectrum said.

By: DocMemory
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