Replenishment effect for peak season inventory delayed: 1HAug. MLC NAND Flash chip ASP shows slight decrease of 1-2 percent

TAIWAN: According to DRAMeXchange, a research division of TrendForce, purchasing remained weak on the NAND flash chip market due to the following factors: uncertainty towards global economic recovery, partially underperformed NAND flash end application product shipments, and delayed inventory replenishment in 3Q11 peak season caused by issues such as leftover stock.

However, certain system product clients’ OEM orders, compared to memory card and UFD retail market demand, remained relatively stable in 1HAug. As a result, MLC NAND flash chip ASP saw a slight 1-2 percent decrease, while TLC NAND flash chip ASP fell by 4-7 percent.Source: DRAMeXchange, Taiwan.

Recently, as major countries have begun to work on improving economic growth, financial deficits, unemployment rates, and other macro-economic issues, concerns about worldwide economic recovery should ease, which will in turn help boost market confidence and year-end holiday purchasing in 4Q. As downstream clients gradually decrease their inventory levels, inventory replenishment demand from new product launches by certain system product clients is expected to warm up after August. NAND flash chip contract price will likely begin to cease falling and stabilize by that time as well.

Since NAND flash-related vendors currently do not have a firm grasp on orders in 4Q11, upward momentum for NAND flash price will still depend on actual market demand conditions in 4Q.Source: DRAMeXchange, Taiwan.