Storage chips officially increase in price

Today, the price increase wave for storage chips officially begins.

Thus, the prolonged sluggishness in the storage market for over half a year finally sees a turning point.

The two main products of storage chips, NAND and DRAM, are showing different market performances in the new quarter.

01 NAND, Price Increase Begins

The first to sound the alarm for price increases is NAND storage giant SanDisk, which announced that it will implement a price increase starting April 1, with an increase of over 10%. This measure applies to all channel and consumer products.

Following closely, Micron also informed that it would raise prices for new orders, with an average increase of about 11%. On March 25, Micron directly issued a price increase notice, expecting the increase to be between 10% and 15%.

Subsequently, SK Hynix and Samsung announced that they would raise NAND flash prices in April.

According to channel feedback, domestic storage company Zhitai announced that it will raise the pickup prices starting in April, with an increase possibly exceeding 10%.

A series of messages followed, causing a stir in the industry.

In the new quarter, NAND chip prices have rebounded, mainly thanks to the decisive and rapid production cut adjustments by major NAND leaders.

As the price trend for NAND products weakens in 2024, to proactively address the issue of oversupply in the market, manufacturers such as Micron, Samsung, SK Hynix, and Kioxia have gradually restarted production cut measures from the fourth quarter of 2024 to prevent the downward trend of NAND prices.

In January this year, a power outage occurred at Micron's NAND factory in Singapore, leading to tight NAND supply. Phison Electronics CEO Pan Jiancheng also revealed that although orders were placed with Micron in December 2024, there has recently been an unexpected issue with insufficient deliveries. The production cut measures of the two major Korean manufacturers, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, are also continuing to unfold, with Samsung's delivery volume in March being only 20-25% of the original orders.

In fact, as early as last month, unusual signals were already emerging in the spot market.

CFM's quotes indicate that the prices of small-capacity eMMC and some SSD products have quietly risen, and some channels have begun tentative price increases.

TrendForce recently released a report stating that it is expected that NAND Flash prices will stabilize and stop falling in the second quarter of 2025, with a quarter-on-quarter increase of 0-5%. Among them, Client SSD contract prices will increase by 3%-8% quarter-on-quarter; Enterprise SSD contract prices will remain flat compared to the first quarter; eMMC contract prices will remain flat compared to the previous quarter. NAND Flash Wafer contract prices will increase by 10%-15% quarter-on-quarter.

With the latest price increase actions from the aforementioned storage leaders, some in the market have already sensed this business opportunity and started stockpiling SSDs, hoping to make a profit when NAND prices soar

02 DRAM, Declining Margin Convergence

Looking at the price trends in the DRAM market in the second quarter of this year.

To conclude, although there has not been a clear signal of price increases in the DRAM market, it can be confirmed that the price decline in the DRAM market in the second quarter will converge. The price decline for general DRAM is expected to converge to a quarter-on-quarter decrease of 0%-5%. If HBM is included, benefiting from the gradual ramp-up of HBM3e 12hi, the average price is expected to increase by 3%-8% quarter-on-quarter.

Specific data:

In the PC DRAM sector, DDR4 prices are trending weakly, with a quarter-on-quarter decline of 3%-8%; DDR5 prices are basically flat quarter-on-quarter.

In the Server DRAM sector, the decline in DDR4 is lower than market expectations, with a quarter-on-quarter decrease of 3%-8%; DDR5 prices are also basically flat quarter-on-quarter.

In the Mobile DRAM sector, LPDDR4X decline will converge to a quarter-on-quarter decrease of 0%-5%; LPDDR5X prices will increase by 0%-5% quarter-on-quarter.

In the Graphics DRAM sector, GDDR6 decline will converge to 3%-8%; GDDR7 prices will remain flat compared to the previous quarter or slightly decline, approximately decreasing by 0%-5%.

In the Consumer DRAM sector, DDR3 contract prices are flat quarter-on-quarter, while DDR4 contract prices are expected to increase by 0%-5% quarter-on-quarter.

Overall, DRAM prices have not yet entered a positive growth range. The contract price of DDR5 has been continuously rising since February of this year, and the price of LPDDR5X is also relatively stable, but products like DDR4, DDR3, and GDDR6 are still "holding back" the storage market.

Recently, a research institution found after interviewing eight related companies that many opinions believe "for sellers, there is no market that can replace China, and coupled with the impact of low-priced Chinese products, prices are declining." Regarding the upcoming DRAM prices, most companies believe that increases may not occur until the second half of the year.

03 HBM, Market Surges 880%

Recently, SK Hynix stated that the demand outlook for AI memory is bright.

It is expected that this year, HBM will account for more than 50% of SK Hynix's total DRAM sales. SK Hynix CEO and President

Goochul Kim stated, "Large technology companies are increasing investments to ensure leadership in the artificial intelligence market. Due to the increase in graphics processing units (GPUs) and custom chips (ASICs), we expect explosive growth in HBM demand." He added, "This year's HBM market is expected to grow more than 8.8 times compared to 2023, and the market for another type of AI memory, solid-state drives (SSDs), is also expected to grow 3.5 times." In addition, regarding the 'DeepSeek impact', he holds an optimistic attitude and stated that if various AI ecosystems are activated, it will help increase demand (for HBM) in the medium to long term.

To continue leading the AI market, SK Hynix will also continue to prepare next-generation technologies and products such as CXL. Guo Luozheng stated: "In addition to HBM, we have also prepared various solutions such as CXL, LPCAMM2, and SOCAMM, thus not only serving as an AI memory supplier but also providing comprehensive solutions."

04 Domestic Storage Manufacturers, Ready to Take Off

If the previous storage market was mainly dominated by international manufacturers, today, the strong offensive from domestic manufacturers has torn a big hole in this pattern.

In the storage product portfolio exported to China by Samsung and SK Hynix, Samsung mainly supplies LPDDR, NAND Flash, image sensors, and display driver ICs to China. SK Hynix focuses on the production and sales of DRAM and NAND products.

Since last year, as competition among domestic manufacturers has intensified, the profits from DDR3 and DDR4 memory have declined, leading Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron to gradually withdraw from this market in mainland China.

It is expected that starting this summer, due to the exit of these major manufacturers, the supply of DDR3 and DDR4 in the market will significantly decrease. The entities taking on this demand are a large number of domestic storage chip companies.

Therefore, as the storage market recovers, domestic manufacturers are expected to welcome new opportunities.

From the domestic market perspective, the recent price increase of domestic NAND products has basically become a fact.

Recently, a person in charge of a domestic storage module manufacturer stated that the prices of all storage chip original manufacturers have been rising this year. The quotes from several storage chip original manufacturers will be relatively close during the same period, with not much difference. Among them, "small capacity NAND is the category that reacted first in this round of price increases and is also the first to rebound."

Currently, storage chip manufacturers are shifting to large-capacity NAND production, while the manufacturing of small-capacity eMMC and other products is undertaken by module manufacturers, influenced by the original manufacturers' wafer pricing. For example, module manufacturers such as Baiwei Storage and Jiangbolong have launched eMMC products based on original manufacturer NAND.

Therefore, as the small-capacity market recovers, these two companies will benefit simultaneously.

Baiwei Storage stated during a survey of 23 institutions that in the embedded storage field, the company's BGASSD has passed the Google approved supplier list certification; in the PC storage field, the company's SSD products have now entered well-known domestic and foreign PC manufacturers such as Lenovo, Acer, HP, and Tongfang. Previously, Baiwei Storage indicated that its SP406/416 series enterprise-level PCIe4.0 SSDs and SS621 series enterprise-level SATA SSDs have completed compatibility testing and certification with Lenovo servers, strengthening its layout in the enterprise-level market In terms of technological research and development, at the beginning of March, Biwei Storage announced that its self-developed eMMC main control chip SP1800 has completed batch verification, supports QLC particles, and optimizes power consumption for smart wearable devices, while also possessing end-to-end data protection capabilities, making it suitable for automotive-grade application scenarios.

It is reported that in 2024, Biwei Storage's revenue from smart wearable storage business will see a significant year-on-year increase, and in 2025, it will deepen cooperation with clients such as Meta in the field of AI glasses.

Jiangbolong recently officially submitted an application to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange for the issuance of overseas listed foreign shares (H shares) and for listing on the main board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Currently, Jiangbolong continues to strengthen its product layout, with its first 32Gbit 2D MLC NAND completing tape-out verification, covering SLC/MLC multi-capacity products, suitable for fields such as network communication and security monitoring. The company currently has four major product lines: embedded storage, solid-state drives, mobile storage, and memory modules, operating three main brands: FORESEE, Zilia, and Lexar.

Additionally, several domestic chip manufacturers are laying out NAND storage chips, including Zhaoyi Innovation, Dongxin Co., Ltd., and Jiangbolong. However, the NAND products from Zhaoyi Innovation and Dongxin Co., Ltd. are all 2D SLC NAND. The current round of NAND price increases mainly focuses on 3D NAND products, while the price of 2D NAND has remained stable this year, with no significant price turning points observed.

In terms of DRAM, Beijing Junzheng stated on the investor interaction platform that the company is actively promoting the update and iteration of DRAM products, with new products using 20nm technology expected to launch samples in 2025, and subsequently, DRAM products with updated processes will be gradually introduced. In addition, Beijing Junzheng plans to continue advancing the research and development of DRAM products with more advanced processes after the 20nm process products.

05 Storage Leaders, Anticipating a Comeback

In the recently concluded first quarter, storage giants did not have a favorable time.

Micron: Storage Business Revenue Plummets 20%

Recently, Micron released its financial report for the second fiscal quarter of 2025, ending February 27, 2025. Although Micron achieved revenue of $8.05 billion in this quarter, a year-on-year increase of 38%, when isolating its storage business unit (SBU), it can be seen that Micron is also facing headwinds in the storage market.

The financial report shows that Micron's SBU revenue was $1.4 billion, a quarter-on-quarter decrease of 20%.

Samsung, SK Hynix: Plummeting Exports to China

In 2024, South Korea's total chip exports reached $133 billion, with nearly 40% coming from orders in China.

Last year, Samsung and SK Hynix significantly increased their sales in China, relying on the relevant measures of China's "Promoting Large-Scale Equipment Updates and Consumer Goods Replacement Action Plan." Samsung Electronics' business report released on March 12 shows that the company's exports to China last year increased by 53.9% year-on-year, reaching 64.9275 trillion won, surpassing exports to the United States, which amounted to 61.3533 trillion won. Among the company's exports to China, chip sales accounted for the majority. According to Samsung Electronics' audit report data, the company's NAND factory in Xi'an, China (sales of 11.1802 trillion won, operating profit of 1.1954 trillion won) and its semiconductor sales subsidiary in Shanghai (sales of 30.0684 trillion won) also saw significant sales increases last year.

SK Hynix also achieved steady growth in the Chinese market. Its Wuxi DRAM factory not only successfully turned a profit last year, with an operating profit of 598.5 billion won, but also saw sales increase by 64.3% year-on-year, with net profit soaring by 65.4%. SK Hynix's sales in China amounted to 5.6 trillion won, an increase compared to the previous year.

After a surge, the situation took a sharp turn for the worse at the beginning of 2025.

Latest data shows that in January this year, South Korea's chip exports to China plummeted by 22.5%, with the decline expanding to an astonishing 31.8% in February. Industry forecasts suggest that the decline in March may exceed 30%, with chip export volumes potentially hitting a ten-year low.

"In the past, we were overwhelmed with orders, but now our warehouses are filled with chips that can't be sold." Recently, industry insiders in South Korea's semiconductor sector lamented that this industry, once dominant globally due to memory chips, is experiencing an unprecedented winter.

Manufacturers such as Samsung, Micron, and SK Hynix have previously exited the SLC NAND Flash market. Due to cost efficiency considerations, the market expects that overseas memory manufacturers may gradually withdraw from the MLC NAND Flash market. As international giants gradually fade out, domestic memory companies will have more room to operate.

As the three major memory leaders gradually shift towards higher value-added fields such as HBM and DDR5, last month, SK Hynix announced the launch of a new ultra-high-performance DRAM product, the 12-layer (12Hi) HBM4 memory, aimed at AI, and was the first in the world to sample the 12Hi HBM4 to major customers.

The demand for massive computing power driven by AI large model training has led to HBM's share in the DRAM market nearing 30%. It is expected that by 2026, HBM4 will drive a surge in customized demand. The product release cycles of NVIDIA and AMD resonate with the technological iterations of Samsung and SK Hynix, allowing international memory leaders to enjoy richer dividends in the recovery wave of the memory market.

Author: Feng Ning, Source: Semiconductor Industry Overview, Original Title: "Storage Chips Officially Increase Prices"

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