NAND Slump Continues in First Half of Year... "Rebound Expected in Second Half Due to Production Cuts"

NAND Prices and Sales to Continue Declining in the First Half of This Year
NAND Market Sales Down 6.2% in Q4 Last Year
All Top Five Companies, Including Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, See Sales Drop
NAND Market Sales Expected to Fall by Up to 20% in Q1 This Year
Market Recovery Anticipated in the Second Half as Production Cuts Take Effect

As demand in upstream industries continues to slow, it is forecasted that NAND prices and sales will keep declining through the first half of this year. However, the market is expected to gradually recover in the second half due to production cuts and price stabilization.

According to market research firm TrendForce on the 3rd, the average selling price (ASP) of NAND flash (hereafter NAND) in the fourth quarter of last year fell 4% compared to the previous quarter, and total bit shipments also decreased by 2%. As a result, NAND sales by manufacturers dropped 6.2% from the previous quarter to $16.52 billion (approximately 24 trillion KRW).

TrendForce analyzed, "The continuous inventory clearance by PC and smartphone manufacturers led to supply chain adjustments, putting downward pressure on the NAND market in the fourth quarter."

Due to the industry slowdown, NAND sales of the top five memory companies all declined.

Samsung Electronics recorded $5.6 billion in sales in the fourth quarter, down 9.7% from the previous quarter due to weak demand for home appliances, but maintained its position as the market leader. However, its market share fell 1.3 percentage points to 33.9% from 35.2% in the third quarter of last year.

SK Hynix (including Solidigm) posted sales of $3.391 billion during the same period, down 6.6% from the previous quarter. Its market share was 20.5%, down 0.1 percentage points from 20.6% in the previous quarter, ranking second.

Japan’s Kioxia and the U.S.’s Western Digital saw relatively smaller sales declines of 0.2% and 0.4%, respectively. Their sales reached $2.657 billion and $1.876 billion, securing third and fifth place in market share.

U.S. Micron recorded sales of $2.275 billion, down 9.3% from the previous quarter, ranking fourth in market share.

TrendForce forecasted, "Although manufacturers actively cut production in the first quarter of this year, it is difficult to avoid the impact of the traditional off-season."

In particular, the first quarter of this year is expected to see a sharp drop in orders and contract prices due to a slowdown in final customers’ inventory replenishment, potentially causing NAND market sales to decrease by up to 20% compared to the previous quarter.

However, from the second half of this year, production cut efforts by companies are expected to take effect, stabilizing NAND prices and enabling market recovery.

TrendForce added, "Samsung Electronics is focusing on developing enterprise SSDs and will flexibly adjust production plans according to market changes," and "SK Hynix also plans to operate production volumes flexibly in response to demand changes."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.