TrendForce Jibang Consulting: DRAM (memory) industry revenue for the third quarter was US$26.02 billion, up 13.6% from the previous quarter

The Zhitong Finance App learned that according to TrendForce Jibang Consulting's latest survey, the DRAM (memory) industry revenue for the third quarter of 2024 was US$26.02 billion, an increase of 13.6% for the quarter. Affected by the elimination of inventories by mainland mobile phone manufacturers and the expansion of production by some DRAM suppliers, demand for DDR5 and HBM (high bandwidth memory) for data centers has increased, although shipments of LPDDR4 and DDR4 from the top three original DRAM manufacturers have declined. In terms of average unit sales price, the three major original manufacturers continued the upward trend of the previous quarter. Coupled with HBM continuing to squeeze overall DRAM production capacity, contract prices increased 8% to 13% in the third quarter.

Looking ahead to the fourth quarter of 2024, TrendForce Jibang Consulting estimates that overall factory component shipments will increase compared to the previous quarter. Prices may be weaker than expected due to HBM's squeezing capacity effect. In addition, the expansion of production by some suppliers will drive PC OEMs and mobile phone companies to actively remove inventory to obtain lower-cost DRAM products. It is expected that the contract price of conventional DRAM (conventional DRAM) and the combined contract price of general DRAM and HBM will drop.

Analyzing the revenue situation of the DRAM industry in the third quarter of this year, driven by rising contract prices for servers (servers) and PC DRAM, the top three businesses all continued to increase quarterly in revenue.

Samsung (Samsung)

Samsung (Samsung) had revenue of 10.7 billion US dollars, a quarterly increase of 9%, and remained number one. Due to its strategic clearance of LPDDR4 and DDR4 inventory, bitumen shipments in the third quarter remained the same as last quarter.

SK Hynix (SK Hynix)

SK Hynix (SK Hynix)'s third-quarter revenue increased to US$8.95 billion, with a quarterly increase of 13.1%, ranking second. The company's bit-element shipments fell 1% to 3% quarterly, reflecting that even if its HBM3e (fifth-generation high-bandwidth memory) shipments were expanded, it was still unable to offset the impact of the decline in LPDDR4 and DDR4 shipments.

Micron Technology

Micron (Micron Technology), which ranked third, had third-quarter revenue of US$5.78 billion, with a quarterly increase of 28.3%. Due to the increase in server DRAM and HBM3e shipments, it boosted the quarterly increase in bitumen shipments by about 13%.

TrendForce Jibang Consulting said that in the third quarter, Taiwanese DRAM suppliers all showed a quarterly decline in revenue, falling far behind the top three companies.

South Asia Technology (Nanya)

Among them, due to weakening sales momentum for consumer DRAM terminals and competition with mainland suppliers in the DDR4 market, South Asia Technology's shipments fell by more than 20% per quarter. Furthermore, its operating margin for the third quarter decreased from -23.4% to -30.8%, reflecting losses due to power outages.

Winbond

Huabang Electronics's third-quarter shipments also declined from the previous quarter due to weakening consumer DRAM demand, and revenue also fell 8.6% quarterly to US$154 million.

Power Electromechanical (PSMC)

LSMC's DRAM revenue showed a quarterly decrease of 27.6% when only homegrown Consumer DRAM products were calculated; if its OEM revenue was added, it increased 18% quarterly, reflecting the continued demand for inventory replenishment from OEM customers.