The global NAND flash market remained in oversupply in the second quarter of 2018, though the market posted a 3.5% sequential increase in revenues, according to DRAMeXchange.

Average NAND flash contract prices fell between 15% and 20% sequentially in the second quarter, but bit shipments bounced back thanks to a pick-up in demand for high-density products from China-based smartphone vendors, said DRAMeXchange. Revenues of the global NAND flash industry came to US$16.29 billion in the second quarter.

Looking forward, DRAMeXchange warned of a nearly 10% sequential decline in NAND flash contract prices for the third quarter, citing the continued oversupply. "There are noticeable signs that the demand growth will be limited despite the contributions from the traditional busy season," noted DRAMeXchange analyst Ben Yeh. "Shipments of mainstream consumer electronics products such as smartphones and notebooks during 3Q18 are not expected to increase significantly. Also, memory module makers will be carrying high levels of inventory."

Nevertheless, the continued fall in NAND flash ASPs will encourage mobile device manufacturers to raise the storage specs of their products, Yeh continued. Oppo, Vivo and Xiaomi are expected to actively adopt uMCP which will also raise the average content per box for mid- to high-end smartphones to 256GB or even 512GB in the first half of 2019.

Falling NAN flash prices will also stimulate shipments of high-capacity (8TB, 16TB) SSDs for servers, Yeh indicated. Meanwhile, the adoption of SSDs among consumer notebooks will be growing with 256/512GB SSDs accounting for a larger share.

Samsung Electronics remained the leading NAND flash vendor with a 36.4% market share in the second quarter of 2018, followed by Toshiba with a 19.3% share and Western Digital with a 14.5% share, according to DRAMeXchange. Micron Technology, SK Hynix and Intel rounded out the global top-6 NAND flash suppliers during the quarter.

By: DocMemory
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