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Chinese DRAM Plant Fire Continues To Drive Up Memory Prices
Nerval's Lobster writes "Damage from an explosion and fire in SK Hynix's Wuxi, China DRAM fabrication plant will drive up global memory prices for PCs, servers, and other devices, according to new reports. Most of the damage from the Sept. 4 fire was to the air-purification systems and roof of the plant, according to announcements from parent company SK Hynix, which predicted the fab would be back to full production in less than a month. The Wuxi plant makes approximately 10 percent of the world's supply of DRAM chips; its primary customers include Apple, Samsung, Lenovo, Dell and Sony. SK Hynix is the world's second-largest manufacturer of memory chips, with a market share of 30 percent, lagging behind Samsung Electronics with 32.7 percent. In an update published Friday, market-research firm DRAMeXchange reported that damage from the fire, smoke and power outages left at least half the plant inoperable or at reduced capacity. The plant is designed to isolate damage in case of disaster so that at least one of its two parallel production facilities can remain online. The facility itself restarted production Sept. 7, according to a statement from the company."
of the flood that hit a couple years ago, halting 70(?) percent of HDD production...
I have just decided that I have no need for RAM or bullshit. Do get back to me if you have decided that you're done selling bullshit and want to sell RAM again.
Just a couple of weeks before I was planning on building a new computer. Wonderful.
And since the most interesting, useful, and relevant piece of information was left out of the summary, prices have gone up 27% since the fire.
For the supply chain to hike the prices that is .....
This is why terrorists are stupid. Damage an air conditioner, unprotected from a parachutist, on the outside of a DRAM plant = billions of dollars of economic damage.
By buying 32 gigs of ram a few months back.
It's wise to put your company's future in the hands of people overseas. Nothing could go wrong there.
So let me get this straight:
A single manufacturer (2nd-largest market share though) suffers reduced production of chips (silicon not deep-fried - sort of!)
Manufacturing plant will be operational within a month
There are other manufacturers that make the same thing
Another manufacturer has largest market share
10% world-wide "shortage" is result
Global prices have to increase?....Sorry, I smell bullshit.
BS
inb4 the idiots who don't understand price elasticity
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Prices through the roof, not because there's a shortage but because the press talks up the perception that there's a shortage.
Did the price of hard drives ever come back down after the flood ?
Don't care personally, no RAM upgrades on the horizon and my personal desktop was upped to 32 gig last month
It is strange how a 5% (a plant producing 10% working at half capacity) reduction in capacity can result in large price changes. This is where I have issue with supply/demand pricing. If one can convince buyers something is scarce the price goes up even when the scarcity is not real.
This is why terrorists are stupid. Damage an air conditioner, unprotected from a parachutist, on the outside of a DRAM plant = billions of dollars of economic damage.
How many candlelit vigils have have you seen organized for the loss of DRAM factory?
Now how many were there for the Boston bombings?
Terrorists aren't so stupid.
Apple components, Samsung components. ALL MADE IN CHINA!
Back in the 80' they would pull this crap every other year. go look it up. I thought it was bullshit then and I call bullshit now.
nothing else needs to be said.
The only reason the price is rising is because of speculation and greed. When speculators who have no intention to use a resource are allowed to buy it, shit like this happens. It's a quick pump and dump on bad news, and nothing else.
...make a scare tactic like war or hurricane, drive up prices.
And do you think the prices will go down after the production is back online?
They do the same thing with toll levies on road construction. After the road has been long paid for, they keep the cash cow mooing.
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=4166741&cid=44758833
The key ingredient is collusion. Without collusion, the opportunity would arise for one or more chip makers to step in and fill the gap, thereby taking that business for themselves. There is a clear opportunity for profit, and therefore motivation to fill the gap, and there are only two ways to prevent this from happening: collusion, or coercion (i.e. government).
I don't need memory or RAM.
Get free satoshi (Bitcoin) and Dogecoins
Buy the rumor, sell the news is something that happens in most markets. Sometimes traders trade based on what they believe will happen in a given economic report or event, like this fire. Once the event passes or the report is released, they dump their positions and the market moves.
Take a look at $SOX, the PHLX Semiconductor Index Fund. it shot up and although it's not specifically tied to memory manufacturers, there's a bullish sentiment on the semiconductor industry over this one little fire. It shot up at the same time the fire hit and it's up 9% since August 27. I'll bet it'll sink back down once Hynix is back in full operation.
Harrison's Postulate - "For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism"
I wouldn't buy Chinese DRAM if my life depended on it. The best stuff comes from Japan, then the United States.
Such bad luck that these DRAM factories keep burning one after the other. Maybe they make them out of wood?
A doctor vacationing on the Riviera met an old lawyer friend and asked him what he was doing there. The lawyer replied, "Remember that lousy real estate I bought? Well, it caught fire, so here I am with the fire insurance proceeds. What are you doing here?" The doctor replied, "Remember that lousy real estate I had in Mississippi? Well, the river overflowed, and here I am with the flood insurance proceeds." The lawyer looked puzzled. "Gee," he asked, "How do you start a flood?"
I come here for the love
We know this is fake. We know that factory was completely empty, and the fire has destroyed nothing.
the greedy bastards did.
According to reports, the plant was making GDDR5 chips, used in high memory bandwidth devices like display adapters. This clearly is a perfectly valid reason to raise the prices of DDR3.
my 50 dollar DRAM is now 52.50.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
stupidity and greedy needs an exhaust