SSDs may see larger than expected price drop in 2019

Capacity expansions have pushed the pricing of NAND flash memory down 50 percent this year and this trend is expected to continue in 2019. DigiTimes says industry sources now believe that 2019's drop may be larger than previously anticipated. There are now 6-7 leading makers of NAND flash memory, and they're all adding production capacity. Based on current plans, the oversupply situation is about to get worse:

Industry sources said that there are now 6-7 leading makers of NAND flash products around the world, all devoted to developing new-generation production processes. Among them, Samsung, Toshiba Memory/Western Digital, Mircon/Intel and SK Hynix have released their respective 96-layer 3D NAND technologies for volume production in the first half of 2019.

All these makers are actively building new production capacities for 96-layer 3D NAND chips at a pace of 50,000-100,000 pieces per month, and China's Yangtze Memory Technology is also ramping up its NAND flash production capacity to a maximum monthly level of 150,000 pieces. The resultant oversupply is expected to send NAND flash prices falling further in 2019, the sources indicated.

Pricing of DRAM chips on the other hand is expected to remain flat. Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron are expected to increase DRAM capacity only slightly in 2019.