AfterDawn: Tech news

Fire at DRAM chip plant likely to cause slight global disruption in supply

Written by Andre Yoskowitz @ 07 Sep 2013 7:59 User comments (4)

Fire at DRAM chip plant likely to cause slight global disruption in supply A major fire at a Chinese plant run by SK Hynix is likely to cause a global disruption in supply of memory chips.
At any given time the plant is responsible for up to 10 percent of the world's supply of DRAM chips, and the plant also accounts for almost half of SK Hynix's production capability.

Hynix itself accounts for 30 percent of the world's share of DRAM chips. The company is one of the largest three suppliers, next to Micron and Samsung.

If production continues to be halted at the plant, shipments for 11 million notebooks and 10 million smartphones will be delayed.

Additionally, due to the supply crunch, prices have gone up 3 percent since the fire, the biggest one-month increase in over three years.

Previous Next  

4 user comments

17.9.2013 21:09

First it's hard drives, now memory.....Makes me wonder if there's something more sinister going on.....

27.9.2013 23:51

Well, for hard drives, it's hard to think that; it's not like anyone has much control over vast floods >.> .

39.9.2013 03:18

Hmmm...so this factory accounts for 10% of the world supply, wouldn't that make it responsible for 1/3 of 30% of the world supply, not 1/2 of 30%?

Originally posted by Bozobub:
Well, for hard drives, it's hard to think that; it's not like anyone has much control over vast floods >.> .
Considering the tiny amount of time it took to get production back up, the extremely long time that prices stayed well above pre-flood levels, and the fact that all the manufacturers shifted their prices the same even if none of their suppliers were affected at all (and then kept prices up at the same levels for the same amount of time)...I'd say there was certainly something very sinister going on. Something tells me we are looking at a different situation here tho...if they fail to deliver on time, companies like Samsung will step in and fill the gap for about the same price, just to take their customers away. For the most part memory is memory...lots of companies make it (and generally have unused capacity), it is essentially public knowledge how to do it well, and you don't need to retrofit a whole factory with new machines to switch to memory production. If anything, the small price increase will cause more manufacturing resulting in the biggest price drops in 5 years.

414.9.2013 22:03

@Killer bug.

Bad math is my point too.

Has anyone actually done any survey of physical damage to the Hard Disk manufacturing plants? If the floods had actually damaged the plant and machinery recovery would have taken much longer. As is the standard practice in so called free economy and capitalism charge the maximum that the market will bear. So I was most certainly not surprised at the delay in the HDD prices begin a downward trend. Did you notice the fact that standard 2.5" bare HDDs are not available in any capacity over 750 gb while USB powered external ones are available up to 2 GB. The fancy pricing is for what, just a moulded plastic casing and a US$ 3/- USB to Sata interface ??? So who is screwing who?

Comments have been disabled for this article.

Latest news

VLC hits milestone: over 5 billion downloads VLC hits milestone: over 5 billion downloads (16 Mar 2024 4:31)
VLC Media Player, the versatile video-software powerhouse, has achieved a remarkable feat: it has been downloaded over 5 billion times.
1 user comment
Sideloading apps to Android gets easier, as Google settles its lawsuit Sideloading apps to Android gets easier, as Google settles its lawsuit (19 Dec 2023 11:09)
Google settled its lawsuit in September 2023, and one of the settlement terms was that the way applications are installed on Android from outside the Google Play Store must become simpler. In the future, installing APK files will be easier.
8 user comments
Roomba Combo j7+ review - Clever trick allows robot vacuum finally to tackle home with rugs and carpets Roomba Combo j7+ review - Clever trick allows robot vacuum finally to tackle home with rugs and carpets (06 Jun 2023 9:19)
Roomba Combo j7+ is the very first Roomba model to combine robot vacuum with mopping features. And Roomba Combo j7+ does all that with a very clever trick, which tackles the problem with mopping and carpets. But is it any good? We found out.
Neato, the robot vacuum company, ends its operations Neato, the robot vacuum company, ends its operations (02 May 2023 3:38)
Neato Robotics has ceased its operations. American robot vacuum pioneer founded in 2005 has finally called it quits and company will cease its operations and sales. Only a skeleton crew will remain who will keep the servers running until 2028.
5 user comments
How to Send Messages to Yourself on WhatsApp How to Send Messages to Yourself on WhatsApp (20 Mar 2023 1:25)
The world's most popular messaging platform, Meta-owned WhatsApp has enabled sending messages to yourself. While at first, this might seem like an odd feature, it can be very useful in a lot of situations. ....
18 user comments

News archive