Khaberni - A report by Nikkei Asia magazine recently addressed the situation of the memory industry in East Asia, pointing out that demand remains enormous, while production expansion proceeds at a slower pace than required.
Microsoft reported that "recent increases in memory and component costs" led to price increases for its Surface series products by up to $500, with Raspberry Pi prices increasing by up to $150 earlier this month.
Meta blamed the memory shortage when raising the price of the Quest 3 headset by $100, while Apple's low-priced MacBook Neo remains an exception to this rule.
The newspaper indicates that production will need to grow by 12% annually until the end of 2027 to meet demand, but growth has only advanced by 7.5%. South Korea remains a key player in the RAM market, with a major project for the world's largest RAM producer, South Korean Chaebol Samsung, advancing, but mass memory production will not begin until next year.
There is currently a 40% gap between supply and demand, and Nikkei points to "rising demand linked to artificial intelligence" and "disruptions in the Middle East also contributing to rising costs of electricity and materials"; however, according to the newspaper, artificial intelligence customers should not expect the latest products from the Pyeongtaek compound before 2028.
It seems that Samsung is not in a rush to produce high bandwidth dynamic random-access memory (HBM DRAM) for customers, allowing its competitors like SK Hynix to enter the market, while Samsung has focused on the traditional dynamic random-access memory that devices also rely on for consumption.
According to the newspaper, the SK Hynix factory in Cheongju for producing HBM memory will remain the main source for this memory until the end of 2026.
The newspaper quoted MS Huang from Counterpoint Research that "supply and demand will not return to normal until 2028."
