Samsung expects DRAM shortage in second half this year

[Jan Panteltje]

Source CNN teletext:

704/1 TEXT P704 Mon 15 Mar 16:18:06
BUSINESS NEWS
CNN Samsung tips chip shortage

Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, the
world's biggest memory chip maker,
said on Monday it expected a shortage
in DRAM (dynamic random access memory)
chips starting in the second half of
this year.
The company, Asia's most valuable
technology firm, also said its mobile
phone sales were likely to exceed the
65 million units it originally
targeted for this year.

 

[Tony Hill]

Source CNN teletext:

704/1 TEXT P704 Mon 15 Mar 16:18:06
BUSINESS NEWS
CNN Samsung tips chip shortage

Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, the
world's biggest memory chip maker,
said on Monday it expected a shortage
in DRAM (dynamic random access memory)
chips starting in the second half of
this year.
The company, Asia's most valuable
technology firm, also said its mobile
phone sales were likely to exceed the
65 million units it originally
targeted for this year.

Hmm.. gotta wonder how much of this is a planned shortage, in light of
the recent investigations of price fixing by Samsung et. al. in the
memory industry? Maybe nothing, it might well be that demand will
increase faster than their production can keep up, but I suspect that
some trade agencies are going to be watching this DRAM shortage REAL
closely.

 

[Jan Panteltje]

Hmm.. gotta wonder how much of this is a planned shortage, in light of
the recent investigations of price fixing by Samsung et. al. in the
memory industry? Maybe nothing, it might well be that demand will
increase faster than their production can keep up, but I suspect that
some trade agencies are going to be watching this DRAM shortage REAL
closely.

Now not to get paranoid, other manufacturers have also signaled problems,
for example Microchip has announced that they can no longer supply everything
'of the shelf', we see Xilinx FPGA longer lead times then expected (month),
all this because everybody was careful not to produce too much in the last
year.
And demand is picking up.
So what I am trying to say: it seems to go for all silicon products.
For a moment I was thinking perhaps gets some RAM modules, and stock up,
sell at a higher price later....
Not so sure that would work.
But a lack of DRAM could also hamper the introduction of new software that
needs it.
For sure it will be played out in many ways
JP