No improvement is expected on the price front until 2018, when 64-layer and 72-layer 3D NAND production hits maturity.
DRAMeXchange, a division of TrendForce, reports that the NAND Flash market continued to experience tight supply in the second quarter. As a result, contract prices of various lines of NAND Flash products rose by 3% to 10% from the first quarter despite the seasonal headwinds. Going forward, NAND Flash suppliers are expected to post excellent revenue results in the third quarter due to small increases in contract prices of mobile products (i.e. eMMC and UFS) and SSDs. On the whole, 2017 will be a bumper year for the industry.Here's a look at the top six NAND flash suppliers, they're Samsung, Toshiba, Western Digital, Micron, SK Hynix and Intel:
“Facing the limitations in the shrinking of the manufacturing node for 2D-NAND Flash (or planar NAND Flash), suppliers have successively shifted to 3D-NAND Flash (or vertical NAND Flash) design and manufacturing technology,” said Alan Chen, senior research manager of DRAMeXchange. “However, the industry has also experienced a substantial loss in production capacity during this transitional period. This in turn resulted in tight supply and rising contract prices.”
Chen added: “We expect supply to be under strain for the rest of 2017. Relief will come later in 2018, when the manufacturing of 64- and 72-layer 3D-NAND Flash reaches maturity.”