Friday, December 4th 2020
1 Hour Power Outage at Micron Manufacturing Plant Could Mean Increased DRAM Prices Throughout 2021
Semiconductor manufacturing is a risky business. Not only is it heavily capital-intensive, which means that even some state-backed would-be players can fail in pooling together the required resources for an industry break-in; but the entire nature of the manufacturing process is a delicate balance of materials, nearly-endless fabrication, cleanup, and QA testing. Wafer manufacturing can take months between the initial fabrication stages through to the final packaging process; and this means that power outages or material contamination can jeopardize an outrageous number of in-fabrication semiconductors.
Recent news as covered by DigiTimes place one of Micron's fabrication plants in Taiwan as being hit with a 1-hour long power outage, which can potentially affect 10% of the entire predictable DRAM supply for the coming months (a power outage affects every step of the manufacturing process). Considering the increased demand for DRAM components due to the COVID-19 pandemic and associated demand for DRAM-inside products such as PCs, DIY DRAM, laptops, and tablets, industry players are now expecting a price hike for DRAM throughout 2021 until this sudden supply constraint is dealt with. As we know, DRAM manufacturers and resellers are a fickle bunch when it comes to increasing prices in even the slightest, dream-like hint of reduced supply. It remains to be seen how much of this 10% DRAM supply is actually salvageable, but projecting from past experience, a price hike seems to be all but guaranteed.
Sources:
DigiTimes, via reddit
Recent news as covered by DigiTimes place one of Micron's fabrication plants in Taiwan as being hit with a 1-hour long power outage, which can potentially affect 10% of the entire predictable DRAM supply for the coming months (a power outage affects every step of the manufacturing process). Considering the increased demand for DRAM components due to the COVID-19 pandemic and associated demand for DRAM-inside products such as PCs, DIY DRAM, laptops, and tablets, industry players are now expecting a price hike for DRAM throughout 2021 until this sudden supply constraint is dealt with. As we know, DRAM manufacturers and resellers are a fickle bunch when it comes to increasing prices in even the slightest, dream-like hint of reduced supply. It remains to be seen how much of this 10% DRAM supply is actually salvageable, but projecting from past experience, a price hike seems to be all but guaranteed.
86 Comments on 1 Hour Power Outage at Micron Manufacturing Plant Could Mean Increased DRAM Prices Throughout 2021
2020: worse year to build a new PC despite all exciting new hardware
2021: hold my beer....
First of all, DRAM prices would have never gone so low if demand was as high as article implies.
Even these things would be somewhat believable, but a 1 hour outage wreaking havoc on the entire plant..... haven't any of these mfgr's ever heard of back-up power supplies/UPS/ATS, I mean WTF ????
Micron: *FLIP*
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Whatever the reason, it's the result that counts.
And I'm not sure where the shortages are coming from because laptop manufacturers are still being exceptionally rubbish in providing the option to even buy anything with more than 8GB. So many laptops claim to have a 16GB option but that's limited to a few regions, and tends to be spec-locked to specific models of storage and CPU choice that makes it a terrible value - eg, you can buy a i5/8GB/256GB model for $700 but if you want 16GB you are forced to spend $1200 for an i7 you don't need or want and usually battery-killing pointless extras like a 4K screen.
Where is all this commodity DRAM going if it's not into laptops? Phones can't be the only answer and additionally, COVID hasn't changed the demand for phones at all.
But now you know; they are planned to raise prices, as if people can just keep paying more forever, what a bunch of idiots really.
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