According to market research institutions, consumer DRAM prices have surged by 75-80% in the first quarter of this year, and it is estimated that DRAM contract prices will continue to increase by another 45-50% in the second quarter!

Analysis indicates that the price increase momentum of consumer DRAM in March 2026 is mainly concentrated in products with capacities below 4Gb, with the average price of DDR4 4Gb increasing by more than 20% per month, significantly exceeding that of high-capacity products.

However, there is currently a demand for conversion in the DDR3 and DDR2 markets. Due to severe production capacity shortages, the average price of DDR3 and DDR2 products with different capacities increased by 20-40% in March, with a more significant increase than DDR4.

In addition, Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, Micron and other three major original factories are gradually shutting down DDR4 production lines, leading to an increasingly severe shortage of supply. The trend of large factories shifting their production capacity to advanced process products such as DDR5 and HBM is further exacerbating the tight supply situation in mature markets.

Industry insiders believe that the strategy of large companies exiting mature processes is difficult to reverse in the short term, and the trend of supply side contraction will continue to dominate the market direction. The transfer effect of orders is expected to continue to expand in the coming quarters. Some downstream manufacturers have started stocking up in advance to cope with the possibility of larger price increases in the future.

According to reports, Samsung significantly increased the DRAM contract price by 100% in the first quarter of this year, and the contract price will rise by another 30% month on month in the second quarter. At present, Samsung has confirmed that it will complete a new round of price negotiations with major global customers at the end of March and officially sign supply contracts. The price increase plan has been fully implemented.

The 30% increase this time is not limited to a single category, but fully covers the HBM high bandwidth memory required for AI servers, as well as the general DRAM used in terminal products such as PCs and smartphones. It belongs to the synchronous upward adjustment of the entire product line, reflecting the continuous tight supply and demand pattern of the industry as a whole.

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