Supply-Demand Imbalance Triggers Price Surge in Storage Market; Major Players Accelerate Layouts to Respond
Recently, the global storage market has witnessed violent fluctuations, with prices of DDR5 memory and NAND flash rising sharply. Against the backdrop of a supply-demand imbalance, enterprises across all links of the industrial chain have adjusted their strategies to cope with market changes.
The DRAM market has performed particularly prominently. The price of Samsung Electronics’ DDR5-5600 16GB module has soared by 300% within three months. In August this year, the quoted price of this product was approximately 336 yuan, and now it has surged to 1,009 yuan. At the end of October, it even reached 216,500 won at one point, which was much higher than the previous price of the 32GB DDR5 kit. The overall contract price of DRAM in the fourth quarter has increased by 30% to 50%. The mainstream DDR4 products have entered the phase-out stage, and it is expected that the industry’s supply-demand situation will remain tight until 2026.
The NAND market has also heated up simultaneously, with the contract price in the fourth quarter rising by 20% to 30%. After raising the NAND quotation by more than 50%, American giant SanDisk has reached an foundry cooperation with Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp. to alleviate production capacity pressure, and plans to start NAND chip production in the first half of next year. The demand from the client side remains strong, with the shipment volume of SSDs with a capacity of 1TB and above continuing to increase, and there is no sign of shifting to low-capacity products due to price hikes.
Facing the price surge, terminal manufacturers have actively stockpiled inventory. Acer has locked in the storage supply for the first quarter of next year, with component inventory reaching 6-8 weeks, and the finished product inventory at the channel end increasing to 8-10 weeks due to advance stockpiling. ADATA accelerated stockpiling from the third quarter, with inventory rebounding to 16 billion yuan in November, and the year-end target aiming at 20-25 billion yuan. It ensures the supply source and cost through long-term contracts.
In terms of market dynamics, Kingston has launched a new dual-interface portable SSD, which adopts a metal design and is equipped with dual interfaces. Its reading speed is as high as 1,050MB/s, providing multiple capacity options and a 5-year warranty. Industry analysis points out that the price increase in the storage market is difficult to ease in the short term. However, if Chinese manufacturers successfully release their DDR5 production capacity, the market is expected to shift from a state of shortage to oversupply.
This price surge in the storage market is dominated by supply-demand imbalance. The demand for AI inference, enterprise storage upgrades, and the phase-out of old products have jointly pushed up product prices. Enterprises in the industrial chain have responded through methods such as long-term contract cooperation, inventory stockpiling, and production capacity expansion. The innovation of supply chain cooperation models and the release of new production capacity will become key factors affecting the future trend of the market.