The spot price of semiconductors and internal storage is significantly affected by Toshiba’s power outage and the trade war between Japan and South Korea.
Japan had announced on July 1st that Japan would start to impose export restrictions on some materials used for chips manufacturing and smart phone for South Korea on July 4th. This news meant that it takes 90 days to be licensed for shipment each time if Japan’s manufacturers would export three types of semiconductor materials to South Korea.
South Korean technology companies such as Samsung and SK hynix, which are expected to stock up only for a month or two after the export restrictions take effect, have been affected.
Against this backdrop, Samsung took the lead in raising prices for factory customers in early July, including DDR3, EMMC and NAND Flash. The prices of these three types of memories were also pulled below the historical low price last month. In fact, three giants want to pull up the long-term prices from low price. However, in the short-term, those who want to raise the price will lost some market shares. Owing to the intensified the trade war between Japan and South Korea, Samsung Electronic accounting for the giant market share suffers loss from raising prices. That also causes some factory customers to get goods in succession resulting in the climax of DDR3 getting goods. Details of the price and distribution are given below.
What about the segments?
DDR4：The 4GB DDR4 is currently around US$1.75 and the 8GB DDR4 is around US$3.40. For most other DDR4, the price is further reduced as the volume of mass production increases.
DDR3：Doubtless 4GB DDR3 was the star memory last week. Whether 256X16 or 512X8, Samsung reported four weeks of delivery and customers have taken away the spot stock in the agent. But, Micron manufacturer has many inventories of 4GBDDR3, which would not cause large out of stock in the short-term. For Micron, the price of 4GB DDR3 decreased and many traders sold good below US$1.40 in early July. The quotation of agents was basically US$1.40+. When the price reached US$1.60, all agents sold out their inventory. At present, the quotation price of Samsung is US$1.75 and that of SK Hynix is US$1.80. The price of 2GB DDR3 is increased from US$0.85 at the end of last month to US$0.95. In the same time the price of 4GBDDR3 is risen from US$1.35 ~ US$1.45 last month to US$1.60 ~US$1.80.
Power outage of Toshiba and the influence of trade war between Japan and South Korea make the price of SLC low-capacity NAND Flash increased, which may not cause the shortage of goods because this type of brand is highly replaceable.
The price of Module continues to decline to the level of summer in 2016. At present, 5G commercialization is gradually increasing, and it is expected to pull up the demand for server memory in the future.
In recent, due to the impact of trade war between Japan and South Korea, the prices of Samsung’s 8GB and 16GBEMMC have risen significantly.
SSDs are rapidly upgraded and prices continue to fall. In terms of large-capacity, SSD have a cost advantage compared with traditional mechanical hard disks, of which demand will continue to rise in future. Specific price details are listed in the table below.
In the CPU market of Intel, the overall supply of Intel is better than that in the first half of the year, which also causes the most market prices of CPU for most common models to decline. For example, the price of I3-8100 now is $120 and the price of I5-8300 is $170. In the past, some models of the notebook market were out of stock. Now the supply has improved and the price has fallen a lot. For example, the current price of 3865U is $28. For other mainstream models, the supply is stable but the demand is not very strong. In addition, the market is not active enough and some factories have inventory, so the demand for CPU in the market is not very strong.
The market supply and demand of IPC is stable. The price of main stream products is stable without fluctuation.
In the server market, there are a large number of 5117 inventories, but the demand is not strong leading to less transaction. The supply of some high-end models is tight but it still can supply the goods.
Generally speaking, TI is in a condition of oversupply.
Affected by the trade war, some customers in the entity list came out to sweep goods, resulting in price fluctuations of some models, such as BQ24040DSQR that has been in excess of demand before April. However, a factory came out to sweep the goods, resulting in the material rising all the way up. From the previous state of 0.16usd nobody asked for it to 0.2usd at one time, there was no stock available. On the other hand, TI is now reducing production, and some agents are cut off because of personnel changes, which may lead to a better state of TI in the second half of the year than in the first half.
The microchip material is out of stock this month. The main reason is the cancellation of some special offer and price based on customer record system operation.
Because some network-related materials caused by trade wars are still limited. For example, the price of USB2514BI-AEZG-TR is not the same as in the past.
Look at NXP situation and corresponding previously expected, NXP has some part number price expired in recent. These two weeks are in the renewal phase, for the original Freescale part number, the renewal price is relatively more difficult. There are also some part number of NXP MCU LPC series increases and it is obvious that the price increase is within 10%.
MCF5272VM66 price expired and QUIKSOL has some stocks. You can make an inquiry if you need.
Due to high inventory pressure, NXP will extend the delivery time to reduce inventory pressure. In the second half of the year and the delivery time of some NXP part numbers may be extended to 16 Weeks.
In addition, some part numbers of MCIMX MPU series started to be in short supply, such as MCIMX515DJM8C with the arrival of slow and tight inventory.
The ADI market is still stable. There is no large-scale out of stock. But, some common models, such as ADUM1201ARZ and AD7606BSTZ individual terminals, appear small-scale shortage. But, due to the stable delivery schedule of the original order, the spot market inventory is still sufficient, which will cause huge impact in the short-term.
The arrangement of LTC orders continues to improve. At the beginning of this year, many orders expected to be delivered in the end of 2019 or even in the 2020 , which have been delivered much closer or are being shipped in succession. The delivery time of most materials is around 12 to 16 weeks.
Recently, the price of shipment of ADI will be increased by 20% to 30% after August. But, as of now, the agent has not received a notice and the original factory said that some special price of military products will be canceled. For example, the price of 5962,883,883B will be increased , and other series have not received specific information, so we can not pay too much attention to it .
Generally speaking, ADI now focuses on PPV. But, there are some spot stock demands. Recently, it would release some news. Let’s look forward to the second half of the market.
After the price adjustment of Infineon's IGBT in the third quarter of 2018, the price and delivery period will be stable in 2019. Thus, Infineon's IGBT delivery is no longer a headache.
The representative fields of IGBTs are new energy vehicles, rail transit, smart grids, and white household appliances.
Among them, the technological advancement of new energy vehicles and the white household appliances that may grow with the application of 5G technology may be the main driving force for the future growth of IGBTs.
As we know, Sony has been strictly controlling the production and output of sensors, especially the IMX series which is one of the reasons why the IMX series is difficult to purchase.
Generally speaking, it is possible to divide the goods unless there is an order under the regular demand of the customer.
However, owing to the full coverage of the road monitoring system by government projects, the IMX265LQR-C, IMX305LQR-C, IMX344LQR-C and other material numbers are in short supply, making the IMX series more and more difficult.