Micron Technology have overtook Hynix Semiconductor and regained its title as the world’s second largest DRAM supplier, according to preliminary tallies released by three major international semiconductor market research firms last week.

In terms of revenue, Micron ranked second in the global dynamic random access memory (DRAM) market in the third quarter of this year, surpassing Hynix.

Hynix, frustrated by the financial crunch and a series of safeguard measures taken by countries of origin of major foreign rivals such as Micron and Infineon Technologies AG, regained second place in the world DRAM market in the second quarter this year for the first time since 1999.

Hynix’s revenue from the DRAM sales amounted to $1.04 billion in the third quarter, down 8.6 percent from the same period a year earlier, while Micron’s DRAM sales climbed to $1.07 billion, up 4.4 percent from the same period in the previous year.

Micron’s sales accounted for 15.9 percent of total DRAM sales worldwide in the third quarter, while Hynix’s sales made up 15.5 percent.

International Data Corp. (IDC), while not disclosing exact sales figures of the two giant DRAM manufacturers, said Hynix lagged behind Micron in terms of market share in the third quarter because of the smaller production capacity of the Korean chipmaker.

Gartner Group’s tally revealed a slightly different pie graph of the world DRAM market in the third quarter. It said Hynix was not outpaced by Micron but the two companies were tied in second place with each holding a 15.2 percent market share in the July-September period.

The market researcher said DRAM sales by Hynix slid 9 percent in the third quarter from a year earlier, while that of Micron rose by 2 percent. Gartner estimated that each of the two memory makers’ DRAM sales totaled $1 billion in the second quarter.

Gartner attributed Hynix’s sales decline to its relatively high dependence on low-capacity DRAMs, the price of which declined by a large margin in the third quarter.

Samsung Electronics widened the gap with the No. 2 player in the third quarter. The electronics giant’s DRAM sales increased by 4.6 percent to $2.15 billion in the cited period. Samsung’s share in the world DRAM market rose by 1.3 percentage points from the second quarter to 31.4 percent in the third quarter.

Infineon remained in fourth place with 13.9 percent share and Elpida Memory, a joint venture between NEC and Hitachi of Japan, continued at fifth with 6.6 percent share.