Rising Costs Lift DDR5 UDIMM Prices; DDR4 UDIMM Rebound on Retail Hikes

Since mid-to-late last month, upstream resources have faced ongoing shortages and price increases, supporting the continued upward trend in DDR5 UDIMM prices. Meanwhile, driven by some channel brands actively raising retail prices, memory manufacturers have generally followed suit. Consequently, DDR4 UDIMM, which experienced a downturn in the first quarter, have begun to stage a rebound.

For SODIMM, price differences exist between overseas and domestic memory original manufacturers for the same capacity, leading to corresponding pricing gaps in finished product solutions. In particular, sub-tier DDR5 particles from overseas memory original manufacturers have long suffered from tight supply and persistently high prices. If certain PC manufacturers in China's Taiwan region specifically request overseas memory original manufacturers' particles, they must pay a premium for the corresponding finished product solutions. Looking ahead, as upstream resources are increasingly locked in advance—exacerbating supply tightness and driving up the prices of domestic DDR5 sub-tier particles—the price gap between DDR5 SODIMM produced with particles from different memory original manufacturers will gradually narrow.

Today, Flash Wafer prices remained unchanged, while prices for some DDR particles were adjusted upward. Specifically, DDR4 16Gb eTT / 8Gb 3200 / 4Gb eTT prices were raised to $16.00 / $19.50 / $2.90; DDR5 24Gb Major / 16Gb eTT prices were increased to $42.00 / $22.60.

As shortages and price hikes for upstream DDR5 sub-tier particles continue to transmit downstream, procurement costs for channel manufacturers are rolling upward. This week, memory manufacturers have maintained a moderate pace of price increases, and DDR5 UDIMM quotes have risen steadily. Concurrently, recently, some channel brands have actively raised prices for DDR4 UDIMM at the retail end. Supported by genuine buying demand in the market, memory manufacturers have generally followed by adjusting DDR4 UDIMM quotes upward.

Although rising LP4X/5X resource prices continue to drive up procurement costs, memory manufacturers intend to raise quotes for corresponding finished products. However, customer price acceptance remains generally low. In particular, demand for high-capacity LP4X products is sluggish. Coupled with aggressive low-price competition among peers to clear inventory, the price of 64Gb LP4X products has started to be revised downward. On the embedded NAND front, the market has remained sluggish recently, with weak customer inquiry willingness. A certain price gap exists between buyers and sellers, and some manufacturers have taken the initiative to offer price concessions, causing actual transaction prices for 64GB and above eMMC to show signs of softening. If more memory manufacturers follow suit with price cuts, an overall weakening of high-capacity eMMC prices will be inevitable.

This week, prices for SODIMM and SSDs remained largely flat. Industry memory manufacturers have finalized orders for a certain volume of low-capacity industry SSDs for this quarter with several leading PC manufacturers based on the new pricing. Orders from other customers are still under negotiation. However, as the pricing strategies from memory original manufacturers targeting the PC market have not yet been implemented, industry PC customers are mostly adopting a wait-and-see approach in the short term. DDR4 and DDR5 SODIMM continue to be impacted by rising resource prices. In particular, the tight supply of sub-tier DDR5 particles from overseas memory original manufacturers has made them even more expensive. Memory manufacturers will continue to raise quotes for corresponding finished products, and the actual implementation of these prices will depend on the absorption capacity of PC customers.