DRAM supply to remain tight throughout 2014

DigiTimes picked up word from industry sources that the supply of commodity DRAM for PCs is expected to remain tight throughout the entire year. One of the reasons is a reduced output from SK Hynix, the company has resumed operations at its fire-hit fab in Wuxi, China but is suffering from poor yield rates. As a result, contract prices for DDR3 memory are expected to continue to rise.

Production of SK Hynix' DRAM products was hit after a fire broke out at its fab in Wuxi, China in September 2013. Though the company has reiterated it already resumed full operations at the fab in November as planned, the actual output has reportedly not returned to normal levels.

The fire-hit DRAM fab is suffering unsatisfactory yield rates, with some PC vendors rejecting some of its shipments due to poor quality of the chips, the sources observed.