Contract prices of DRAM products across all major application markets already registered declines of more than 15% sequentially in January, according to DRAMeXchange. Prices will continue their downward trend through March resulting in an over 20% sequential decline during the first quarter of 2019, followed by another sequential decrease of 15% in the second quarter.

Continued oversupply in the DRAM market will result in "significant price declines" for the memory chips in the first half of 2019, said DRAMeXchange. End-market demand stays weak coupled with high inventory levels at PC and other device OEMs.

Contract prices for PC DRAM memory are expected to decrease by up to 25% sequentially in the first quarter followed by another drop of up to 15% in the second quarter, while prices for server DRAM chips will fall nearly 30% in the first quarter and 15% in the second, DRAMeXchange indicated.

Looking into the second half of 2019, DRAMeXchange believes that end-market demand growth will be constrained by unfavorable macroeconomic factors. Demand for the emerging 5G, IoT and automotive electronics applications "will not have much influence" on the overall DRAM market this year, DRAMeXchange noted.

On the supply side, DRAM chipmakers have slowed down their capacity expansions that will narrow the supply-demand gap. "This will not be enough to stop prices from falling," DRAMeXchange continued, however. DRAM prices will continue falling but at a moderate pace over the next several quarters, according to the price tracker.

By: DocMemory
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