NAND flash prices have rebounded slightly and are expected to register a short-lived rally prior to the Lunar New Year holiday, according to industry sources.

NAND flash prices will be under downward pressure again following the short-lived rebound, said the sources, adding that prices are set to fall after the Lunar New Year break in February due to oversupply.

NAND flash chip suppliers have recently raised prices slightly although downstream module and device makers remain cautious about building up inventory at the end of the year, the sources noted.

Flash memory card prices have also rebounded slightly from the bottom they reached previously, the sources continued. Meanwhile, SSD prices continue to fall while prices of embedded storage devices including eMMC and eMCP have been relatively stable, the sources said.

Demand for smartphones that come with more memory is expected to relieve the NAND flash market oversupply in the first half of 2019, the sources indicated. Major smartphone companies are set to upgrade the storage specs of their flagship models to 512GB next year.

In addition, statistics from ChinaFlashMarket show that pricing for 240GB SSDs have come below that for 1TB HDDs. Prices for SSDs with a capacity of 240GB has fallen further to US$29 per unit, and those for 480GB SSDs have also come down to around US$57.

Prices for 480/512GB SSDs are likely to approach those for 1TB HDD by the end of 2019, according to industry sources.

By: DocMemory
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