I live in Taiwan and work in the IT industry. Taiwan was hit by another couple of quakes last night, yes, but the damage was minimal to the areas that produce RAM and other IC devices. This should not effect RAM prices. The large US buyers (distributors and resellers) of RAM buy in two week slots (contracts). They place blanket orders for those two weeks at that given price. The SPOT price for RAM in Taiwan, went from 20 $USD per chip last week down to $10 per chip by the end of the week. This means that pricing in the U.S. SHOULD come down soon, but only after distributors and resellers get rid of all their exisiting stock. When the SPOT pricing for chips goes down to $5 per chip, we will be back where we were before the power outages and earthquake rocked the IC industry here. Yes, there are alot of other device prices that were affected, but this is minimal. This is mostly because the largest foundry in the world (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp., or TSMC) was up and running 9 days after the earquake, at full capacity. The other main reason is that 95% of these devices are on CONTRACT pricing only, as there is no spot market for non-comoditized ICs. This means that the foundries take the loss and their Taiwan stock price goes down, and they may raise pricing for FUTURE contracts, which will not affect the consumer market for several months, if ever. As for the posts asking about aid to Taiwan, rest assured Taiwan will recover quickly. There were massive funds raised for disaster aid right here on the island. If you REALLY want to do something, write your senator and tell he/she that US - SINO policy is BULLSHIT and that the US should give 100% support to an INDEPENDENT TAIWAN, and not a "ONE CHINA - TWO SYSTEMS" policy. CHINA ACTUALLY REFUSED TO LET THE UN AND ANY OTHER NATIONS PROVIDE AID TO TAIWAN IN THE BEGGINNING, AND ONLY AFTER IMMENSE PRESSURE DID THEY LET "SOME" AID INTO TAIWAN. TAIWAN IS SOVEREIGN, AND PLEASE TELL YOUR SENATOR THAT THE US SHOULD BACK TAIWAN UNDER ANY AND ALL CIRCUMSTANCES. BELEIVE ME, YOU THINK AN EARTHQUAKE IS BAD, JUST WAIT UNTIL CHINA DECIDES TO RAID TAIWAN (WHICH IT WILL DO IF THE US DOES NOT SUPPORT TAIWAN 100%). RAM PRICES, PC'S WOULD ALL SKYROCKET PROBABLY NEVER TO RETURN TO EARTH.
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I live in Taiwan and work in the IT industry. Taiwan was hit by another couple of quakes last night, yes, but the damage was minimal to the areas that produce RAM and other IC devices. This should not effect RAM prices. The large US buyers (distributors and resellers) of RAM buy in two week slots (contracts). They place blanket orders for those two weeks at that given price. The SPOT price for RAM in Taiwan, went from 20 $USD per chip last week down to $10 per chip by the end of the week. This means that pricing in the U.S. SHOULD come down soon, but only after distributors and resellers get rid of all their exisiting stock. When the SPOT pricing for chips goes down to $5 per chip, we will be back where we were before the power outages and earthquake rocked the IC industry here. Yes, there are alot of other device prices that were affected, but this is minimal. This is mostly because the largest foundry in the world (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp., or TSMC) was up and running 9 days after the earquake, at full capacity. The other main reason is that 95% of these devices are on CONTRACT pricing only, as there is no spot market for non-comoditized ICs. This means that the foundries take the loss and their Taiwan stock price goes down, and they may raise pricing for FUTURE contracts, which will not affect the consumer market for several months, if ever. As for the posts asking about aid to Taiwan, rest assured Taiwan will recover quickly. There were massive funds raised for disaster aid right here on the island. If you REALLY want to do something, write your senator and tell he/she that US - SINO policy is BULLSHIT and that the US should give 100% support to an INDEPENDENT TAIWAN, and not a "ONE CHINA - TWO SYSTEMS" policy. CHINA ACTUALLY REFUSED TO LET THE UN AND ANY OTHER NATIONS PROVIDE AID TO TAIWAN IN THE BEGGINNING, AND ONLY AFTER IMMENSE PRESSURE DID THEY LET "SOME" AID INTO TAIWAN. TAIWAN IS SOVEREIGN, AND PLEASE TELL YOUR SENATOR THAT THE US SHOULD BACK TAIWAN UNDER ANY AND ALL CIRCUMSTANCES. BELEIVE ME, YOU THINK AN EARTHQUAKE IS BAD, JUST WAIT UNTIL CHINA DECIDES TO RAID TAIWAN (WHICH IT WILL DO IF THE US DOES NOT SUPPORT TAIWAN 100%). RAM PRICES, PC'S WOULD ALL SKYROCKET PROBABLY NEVER TO RETURN TO EARTH.