Samsung Electronics’ sales its NAND flash memory sales went up to double digits in in the second quarter, widening the gap with Toshiba, the second largest chip maker in the world, further. The South Korean electronics giant is expected to continuously show good performance in the third quarter due to a rising demand of mobile and enterprise solid-state drives (eSSDs). 

According to the DRAMeXchange on August 22, Samsung Electronics posted US$4.7 billion (5.34 trillion won) in NAND flash sales in the second quarter of this year, up 11.6 percent from the first quarter. The figure also grew 51.5 percent from the second quarter last year.

Accordingly, Samsung Electronics’ share in the NAND flash market in terms of sales also increased 1.2 percent points to 35.6 percent in the second quarter. On the other hand, Toshiba’s market share decreased 1.3 percent points from the first quarter. The gap between the two companies widened from 15.6 percent points in the first quarter to 18.1 percent points in the second quarter.

Toshiba’s NAND flash sales in the second quarter rose only 0.5 percent from the first quarter. The DRAMeXchange said, “Toshiba was limited to make an investment to expand 3D NAND flash production lines due to financial difficulties. Meeting Apple’s demand is now at the top of the company’s agenda.”

SK Hynix, the world's fifth-largest semiconductor company, also had a poor performance. The company’s NAND Flash sales recorded at US$1.3 billion (1.48 trillion won) in the second quarter, down 0.7 percent from the first quarter. Its market share also dropped 0.8 percent point to 9.9 percent from 10.7 percent in the first quarter. This was largely due to the fact that SK Hynix saw their shipments in terms of bit drop as the NAND flash demand from Chinese smartphone makers fell short of expectations in the second quarter.

Western Digital and Micron, the world’s third and fourth largest chip maker, saw their sales and market share grow together. Wesetern Digital’s NAND flash digital sales rose 8.6 percent to US$2.17 billion (2.62 trillion won) in the second quarter, nearly catching up with Toshiba with US$2.32 billion (2.63 trillion won). Micron showed the highest sales growth rate of 20.8 percent over the same period with 1.4 percent point growth of market share.

Meanwhile, the NAND flash market totaled US$13.22 billion (15.01 trillion won) in the second quarter, up 8 percent from the first quarter. The DRAMeXchange said, “The market rose 3 to 10 percent despite the seasonal off-season of fixed prices of various NAND flash products in the second quarter.” 

By: DocMemory
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