Industry sources shared with DigiTimes that global supply of NAND flash memory chips is likely to remain tight until early 2013, as demand is anticipated to rise ahead of the holiday season.
Supply in the spot market is tighter as major NAND-chip suppliers including Samsung Electronics, Toshiba, SanDisk, Micron Technology and SK Hynix intend to focus on orders placed by their system clients, the sources indicated. The five leading NAND flash companies have been enjoying brisk demand coming from the smartphone and tablet sectors, the sources said.
Suppliers to Apple, for instance, have provided a very limited amount to their other customers particularly those without long-term contracts, the sources noted. Toshiba, Hynix and SanDisk reportedly supply NAND flash chips for the recently-launched iPhone 5.
Due to insufficient supplies from chipmakers, distributors and module makers have quoted their NAND flash products at higher prices, the sources pointed out.
