DRAM Suppliers Show Poor Q2 Results; Elpida Attempts to Catch Hynix, Says iSuppli
News Type：Industry NewsHit:468Add DateTime：13-08-2008
Printer-Friendlydigg This!E-Mail Articledel.icio.usFacing a tough market following months of losses, Q2 2008 was tumultuous for the top-10 DRAM suppliers as a mixture of poor profits was coupled with sequential megabyte unit growth, according to iSuppli Corp.
Samsung maintained its lead in the DRAM market with more than 30% market share recorded during Q2 2008 while Qimonda's position dropped to just 9% market share during the quarter. Qimonda, which captured 16% market share just two years ago, has now lost 7% of that growth as other DRAM suppliers have forged ahead.
One of the more noticeable developments coming from suppliers Q2 results is that the industry unit growth has not slowed down, at least, not yet.
"The industry megabyte bit growth grew by a stunning 17% sequentially during the second quarter, blowing iSuppli's forecast of 10%," said Nam Hyung Kim, director and chief analyst for Memory ICs/Storage Systems at iSuppli. "The unit growth doesn't seem to be slowing down either and is even higher than that of the first quarter. The positive side is that the PC market has been sound. However, oversupply may be inevitable in Q3 due to OEMs' aggressive inventory build-up during the second quarter."
Although Hynix grew its DRAM sales by 20%, Elpida increased its sales by 22%, keeping a market share distance of 4 percentage points between the two. Hynix gained nearly 20% of the market while Elpida's market share increased to more than 15% during the quarter.
Elpida, along with its foundry partner Powerchip, increased its megabyte unit explosively by 26% and 38%, respectively. "The market share battle between Hynix and Elpida could delay the market recovery," Kim noted. "Elpida clearly wants to be no.2 soon while Hynix will try to reduce its NAND growth and to increase DRAM production to retain its market share."
But all of the DRAM suppliers could face turbulent times ahead as after experiencing a mild recovery in Q2, the global DRAM market is showing renewed signs of weakness, with prices expected to fall during Q3 due to bloated inventories, according to iSuppli.
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