According to sources in Taiwan’s storage industry, prices for NAND flash chips are unlikely to fall any more and will even rise in the second half of 2019 as demand from device manufacturers has increased.
These prices will not fall further due to manufacturers’ control over capacity, the sources said, adding that companies are also delaying their transition to 96-layer 3D NAND technology. Chip prices are expected to bottom out in the first quarter.
Since 2018, when the market was overcrowded, prices have fallen. Market analysts had estimated that prices would fall 20% in the first quarter of 2019.
On the demand side, traders are thinking about an increase in module prices, according to industry sources.
Demand began to rise gradually, according to Khein-Sen Pua, president of Phison Electronics. The control supplier NAND recorded a 13.4% increase in profits in January.