Soaring prices, but shrinking demand as China’s memory chip market falters
China’s spot market for memory chips is surging on tight global supply, but Shenzhen vendors say sky-high quotes are scaring off buyers
China’s secondary semiconductor market is seeing a sharp run-up in memory chip prices as global supplies tighten, though vendors say the rally faces an awkward conundrum: the price tags might be higher, but the buyers are disappearing.
The mark-ups on memory products had become “totally outrageous”, Cai told the Post on Wednesday, adding that the rapid inflation was pushing customers away rather than drawing them in.
A single 256-gigabyte DDR5 server memory stick from Samsung Electronics or SK Hynix had climbed above 40,000 yuan (US$5,700) in China’s spot market, with some units priced as high as 49,999 yuan, according to a report by the Chinese outlet Jiemian.
At those levels, a standard shipping box of 100 sticks would cost about 5 million yuan, the report said, prompting industry insiders to remark that the shipment now “exceeds the value of many real estate properties in Shanghai”.