DRAM spot market prices soar

PRICES OF MEMORY MODULES on the spot market have shown a sharp rise in Asia today, reinforcing the trend that started a few days ago.

One of the reasons, brokers believe, is that manufacturers are trimming spot offers in such a way that there's an artifical shortage of chips. June is the low point of the year for DRAM trading.

Other sources told the INQUIRER that Samsung has just inked a deal with Fujitsu Siemens for DDR (double data rate) parts which will absorb much of its production capacity, with the PC manufacturer buying at rock bottom.

And that has led Micron, Hynix and the other Dramurai to say there's little stock in the marketplace.

Here are some examples of spot prices of modules today, as we go to press:

DDR 266 128MB (16M8 8ea) $19.2 Mosel Vitelic
DDR 266 128MB (16M8 16ea) $18 Elixir
DDR 266 256MB (32M8 8ea) $38 Nanya
DR 266 256MB (16M8 16ea) $36.5 Mosel Vitelic
DDR 266 256MB ECC, RIG(16M8) $50 Nanya
DDR 333 256MB (32M8 8ea) $47 Samsung
DDR 333 512MB (32M8 16ea) $92 Samsung