Revenues of the global NAND flash industry declined 23.8% sequentially to US$10.79 billion in the first quarter of 2019, according to DRAMeXchange. End-market demand has started picking up in the second quarter, but the pick-up in demand will still fail to stop the chip prices from falling further.

Disappointing demand for smartphones and servers during the fourth quarter of 2018 has prompted OEMs to start adjusting their inventory levels since 2019, DRAMeXchange said. During first-quarter 2019, chip suppliers' inventory correction coupled with seasonal factors already caused NAND flash contract prices to experience "the most dramatic drop" since first-quarter 2018, DRAMeXchange indicated.

First-quarter contract prices for eMMC/UFS, client SSD and enterprise SSD devices fell by 15-20%, 17-31% and 26-32%, respectively, on quarter, DRAMeXchange disclosed. Meanwhile, TLC wafer product contract quotes declined 19-28% sequentially in the first quarter.

NAND flash demand has started picking up for applications including smartphones, notebooks and servers in the second quarter. However, "this will not be enough to ease inventory pressure, and suppliers will see no end to plunging prices," DRAMeXchange noted.

All NAND flash chipmakers experienced double-digit sales drops sequentially in the first quarter of 2019, DRAMeXchange said.

Samsung remained the leading NAND flash vendor with a 29.9% market share in the first quarter of 2019, followed by Toshiba with a 20.2% share and Micron Technology with a 16.5% share, according to DRAMeXchange. Western Digital, SK Hynix and Intel rounded out the global top-6 NAND flash suppliers during the quarter.

By: DocMemory
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