Wednesday, December 21st 2022
Blacklisting of YMTC by the U.S. Enables Samsung to Raise NAND Flash Prices by 10%
YMTC, the Chinese DRAM and NAND flash company that recently announced a 232-layer 3D NAND flash memory that threatened to disrupt entrenched players Samsung, Micron Technology, Kioxia, and SK Hynix, has been blacklisted by the U.S. Department of Commerce, forcing American consumer electronics and PC manufacturers to stop sourcing from the company. Capitalizing on just this, Samsung raised prices of its NAND flash memory chips by as much as 10%, according to a DigiTimes report.
YMTC peaked when Apple struck a NAND flash supply deal with the company in 2020, which would see its storage devices power pretty much every Apple product you can think of, however, under political pressure, Apple withdrew from this deal in 2022. The Department of Commerce contention has been to that YMTC has access to cutting-edge technology, and is backed by Chinese state-capacity, which can help it drive out competitors. All is not well between the U.S. and China geopolitically, either. Samsung's 10% increase in the first half of December 2022 concerns spot-pricing, which could mean its contract pricing (usually used by customers placing very large orders), could be different. It is conceivable that the exit of YMTC from the U.S. market could raise NAND flash product prices across the board.
YMTC peaked when Apple struck a NAND flash supply deal with the company in 2020, which would see its storage devices power pretty much every Apple product you can think of, however, under political pressure, Apple withdrew from this deal in 2022. The Department of Commerce contention has been to that YMTC has access to cutting-edge technology, and is backed by Chinese state-capacity, which can help it drive out competitors. All is not well between the U.S. and China geopolitically, either. Samsung's 10% increase in the first half of December 2022 concerns spot-pricing, which could mean its contract pricing (usually used by customers placing very large orders), could be different. It is conceivable that the exit of YMTC from the U.S. market could raise NAND flash product prices across the board.