SK Hynix just posted record profits. This "shortage" is pure market manipulation. Look at the profits for all of the memory fabs, and compare it to the "shortage" timeline. You'll see that they're all doing better than ever on what should be lean years. Unless federal/ legal regulations come down hard on them, or a new player comes into the market, I don't see things changing for the time being.
To be fair, they need to pay for R&D of the next processes and the next multi-billion $ fabs from the current profits during "fat" years. And... price fixing in the DRAM industry is completely unheard of, isn't it? ;/
It also isn't clear that any manipulation was needed, from what I've heard the "shortage" was from Samsung selling tons of memory (this might just be the GDDR5 "shortage") to the Chinese phone market. It isn't like they are burying RAM or something.
Note that the original RAM "price fixing" charges only happened after years of business rags whining about "damaging price wars" (i.e. not price fixing). Price fixing is the norm, and competition (especially in something as dominated by 2-3 companies like DRAM) is obvious in the rare price war.
We’ve updated our terms. By continuing to use the site and/or by logging into your account, you agree to the Site’s updated Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
8 Comments
Back to Article
rsandru - Tuesday, February 6, 2018 - link
Well done SK Hynix.Now can you please get back to reality and produce more DDR4? Current prices are just insane.
Pork@III - Tuesday, February 6, 2018 - link
Reality is too poor. In fantasy world of speculations have more money.wrkingclass_hero - Tuesday, February 6, 2018 - link
SK Hynix just posted record profits. This "shortage" is pure market manipulation. Look at the profits for all of the memory fabs, and compare it to the "shortage" timeline. You'll see that they're all doing better than ever on what should be lean years. Unless federal/ legal regulations come down hard on them, or a new player comes into the market, I don't see things changing for the time being.MrSpadge - Wednesday, February 7, 2018 - link
To be fair, they need to pay for R&D of the next processes and the next multi-billion $ fabs from the current profits during "fat" years. And... price fixing in the DRAM industry is completely unheard of, isn't it? ;/peevee - Friday, February 9, 2018 - link
These are profits. After R&D was subtracted from sales with all the other costs.surt - Friday, February 9, 2018 - link
Shortage years are always the best for manufacturers. They get killed in glut years when the prices are too low.wumpus - Thursday, April 26, 2018 - link
It also isn't clear that any manipulation was needed, from what I've heard the "shortage" was from Samsung selling tons of memory (this might just be the GDDR5 "shortage") to the Chinese phone market. It isn't like they are burying RAM or something.Note that the original RAM "price fixing" charges only happened after years of business rags whining about "damaging price wars" (i.e. not price fixing). Price fixing is the norm, and competition (especially in something as dominated by 2-3 companies like DRAM) is obvious in the rare price war.