Circuits Assembly Online Magazine - Q1 Global DRAM Revenue Drops 7.5% Sequentially

TAIPEI – Global DRAM revenue fell 7.5% sequentially in the first quarter of 2015, with revenue totaling $12 billion, says DRAMeXchange.

The decline in revenue is attributed to the 11% quarterly decrease of the average DRAM contract price and seasonal effects in the notebook and smartphone markets.

DRAMeXchange forecasts the DRAM industry will be worth $51.2 billion in 2015, up 12% year-over-year.

In the first quarter, Samsung and SK Hynix had 43% and 27% of the market, respectively, giving the combined Korean suppliers more than 70% of the global DRAM market.

Samsung remains the industry leader, as its 20nm yield is expected to account for nearly 60% of the supplier’s total output by the end of the year.

SK Hynix’s performance is boosted by its 25nm process, says the research firm. The cost reduction that came with the technology migration offset the effects of declining prices, thus giving SK Hynix a healthy profit for this quarter.

The market share of the US-based DRAM maker Micron was 22.5%, a slight decline compared with the previous quarter. Micron’s first quarter revenue suffered a 13% quarterly drop. The firm’s migration to the 20nm process has not progressed as expected, and a significant portion of the DRAM maker’s output still comes from the 30nm process, says DRAMeXchange.

Taiwan-based Nanya is making a rapid migration from the conventional 30nm process to the 30nm-shrink process, which is expected to account for 50% of the total production by the end of 2015. Nanya’s revenue will stabilize as manufacturing costs are reduced. On the migration to 20nm, Nanya has scheduled next year for mass production.

Affected by weak commodity DRAM prices, Powerchip’s first quarter revenue fell 7.9% sequentially. However, Powerchip has already begun trial production on the 25nm process, and mass production will begin at the end of the year at the earliest, says the research firm.

Winbond has no commodity DRAM output, focusing instead on specialty and mobile DRAM. With capacity fully loaded at 44,000 wafers per month, Winbond’s first quarter revenue decreased 1.3% sequentially.