Spot price soars on supply concern

The price rebound in the NAND Flash spot market is much stronger than DRAM’s as Toshiba and SanDisk, which hold about 40% of the global supply, have their production hub located in Japan. When most vendors, so as traders/brokers, stopped making quotes after the quake, panic spread across the board, thus resulting in an intraday-rebound of more than 10% on March 11. Although the strength of upside has weaken this week after some vendors resume their quotation to channels, the analysts believe the price trend will continue being strong because inventory at channel remains low. Vendors are expected to reserve their production priority to OEM customers, implying that lesser stock will be released to the channels, the statement continues. According to checks from vendors, some have already mulled price hike for the coming negotiation. inSpectrum believes the proposed raise to be accepted by customers given an uncertain supply status in the coming months. As of noon session of March 18, spot price of a 32Gb MLCflash has dropped by 4% to USD5.48 and the same-density TLC flash has remained flat at USD4.53.