SK Hynix fire incident still driving up DRAM prices

Slashdot reports the fire at SK Hynix' Wuxi plant in China from September 4 is still driving up DRAM prices. Production at the plant resumed at September 7, but full capacity won't be achieved until at least October. According to a report by DRAMeXchange, the Wuxi plant currently operates at half capacity because the plant is designed to isolate damage in case of disaster: it consists of two parallel production facilities that function independently. The facility in Wuxi produces around 10 percent of world's DRAM supply.

SK Hynix announced the plant had restarted production Sept. 7, but won’t be back to full capacity until at least October, leading to “some temporary decrease” in its output of chips. The primary culprit is damage to its clean rooms, contamination of manufacturing systems, reconfiguration of manufacturing systems, and meticulous inspection and repair of clean facilities by Chinese government and SK Hynix crews, the company reported.

SK Hynix has flooded the site with engineers and repair crews to repair the damage, examine, clean and reconfigure the rest of the plant. Full repairs will take between three months and six months and reduce total output by two months’ worth of production at the Wuxi plant – amounting to approximately 260,000 chips, according to DRAMeXchange.

Spot prices for DRAM chips have risen approximately 27 percent since the fire, according to the report.