Lead
In the current global memory chip market, memory chips account for more than 60%, which also makes memory chips the most profitable product in the world, but not long ago, Micron in the United States announced a price increase in memory chips, and South Korea's Samsung and SK hynix also announced a price increase in memory chips, and increased by 4%.
For a time, the world was shocked, and many related companies were also worried about rising prices, and many experts said that American and South Korean companies are actually lacking in innovation capabilities in the field of storage, and the reason for this price increase is because American and South Korean companies are too greedy in price.
However, the next rolling price increase is believed to definitely cause dissatisfaction among global enterprises, and there is also news that Samsung may raise prices to share the cost of workers because of the factory strike.
So will such a large price increase in memory chips in the United States and South Korea really harvest Made in China?
The price of memory chips in the United States and South Korea has risen.
At present, the companies that dominate the memory chip market in the global memory chip factory are Samsung, SK hynix, and Micron in the United States.
These companies mainly occupy 80% of the memory chip market share, and Japan's Kioxia is also constantly catching up with American and South Korean companies.
3D NAND is the dominant memory technology in the current global memory chip market, and this market is mainly monopolized by large chip manufacturers such as Samsung, SK hynix, and Micron.
In 2016, American companies such as Micron and Western Digital also joined the manufacturing of 3D NAND chips.
Due to the sharp rise in global memory chip prices in 2023, manufacturers such as Samsung, SK hynix, and Micron are facing a huge market demand impact, and at the same time, they are also increasing their investment in research and development.
In 2024, the price of its memory chips will rise by 20%, which is great news for these companies that have the vast majority of market share.
Among them, Samsung and SK hynix are the most beneficial, and the core reason is that Samsung officially launched V-NAND flash memory products in 2018 and invested a considerable amount of money in its production.
In addition, SK hynix, as a competitor of Samsung, is also launching a large number of cache chip products in the product stage of V-NAND chip products.
The price of memory chips has been at a relatively low level, which has also become the reason why many manufacturers actively promote products when they are conducting research and development, so domestic memory chip companies have gained a firm foothold in the memory chip industry in just a few years.
In the current global memory chip market share, the United States, South Korea, Japan, these three countries almost all monopolize the global storage market, and the current domestic memory chips will import nearly 100 billion yuan every year.
Therefore, the price increase of memory chips this time has led to an increase of nearly 300 billion yuan in domestic memory chip expenditure.
In particular, with the continuous improvement of the storage technology of enterprises such as Yangtze River Storage and Changxin Storage, the share of China's domestic memory chips in the global market has gradually increased.
The domestic memory chip industry chain is also gradually moving forward, and in 2019, Micron in the United States announced a price increase in memory chips, which also had a 30% increase.
The U.S. sanctions on Huawei in 2019 have also led many companies to be suspicious of U.S. chips, and at the same time, they have also accelerated the process of China's localization, which has also promoted the development of the mainland memory chip industry to a large extent.
More and more companies choose to import memory chips from South Korea, originally because the cost of production in South Korea is higher than that in China, and now coupled with the rise in the price of memory chips, this is quite a pressure for many companies.
However, behind the current price increase of memory chip manufacturers, it exposes the behavior of the United States, South Korea and other companies in the face of the challenge of domestic memory chips, among which the news of the strike also spread quickly, a Samsung factory is only 20 kilometers away from Hwaseong, of which seventy or eighty percent of the workers are from Hwaseong.
But Samsung's sales returns in recent years have not been equivalent to rising wages from workers, so a strike by workers ensued.
Coupled with the emergence of the new epidemic, the workload of these workers has also been reduced for a while, but Samsung has not compensated at all, so in order to share the cost of workers, Samsung can only transfer the price to enterprises and consumers.
What is the reason for the increase in the price of memory chips?
At present, the global memory chip market occupies more than 60% of the market share, which can be said to be the most profitable product in this market.
And the reason for this high profit is because memory chips are becoming cheaper and cheaper, and every mobile phone and every computer, even if they don't need memory chips, will be added.
If it can be easily produced, then this will undoubtedly bring about an increase in profitability, because the memory chip market is in short supply, which also makes memory chips the target of many companies' ambitions.
Any company wants to take a piece of this lucrative market, but you must know that there are several manufacturers that have a huge advantage in the current global memory chip market share.
After joining the global supply chain, companies such as Yangtze River Storage and Changxin Storage do not have so much profit margin compared to manufacturers such as Samsung.
In particular, manufacturers in the United States, South Korea and other countries dare not relax in the face of memory chip prices, because once the price is too high, then this will greatly hinder their global sales.
But now they are going to launch a lower price product, which is not suitable, so they can study and discuss it from two aspects.
On the one hand, they can still make profits from high fees, and at the same time, they are constantly upgrading the performance of memory chips, so there is still a lot of room for the cost of manufacturing memory chips.
This is to make up for their profits, and on the other hand, it is to suppress domestic memory chips, and this suppression mechanism is mainly reflected in the performance of its products.
Because the current share of domestic memory chips in the global market is still very small.
Once the mainland's memory chip R&D capabilities reach a certain level, this suppression will also be self-defeating.
Due to the monopoly of memory chip manufacturers in the United States, South Korea and other countries, its main approach is to transform the original imported chips and then sell them to the world.
This undoubtedly has a large price profit margin, but later after domestic companies launched domestic memory chips with significantly better performance, their sales prices were cheaper than those in other countries, and the performance was also stronger.
This has led to companies in other countries around the world also stepping up.
At the same time, in the current stage of technological innovation, the mainland will face the suppression of the United States and South Korea, which will allow the mainland to have more possibilities and advantages in research and development.
In this matter, manufacturers in the United States, South Korea and other countries take it lightly, which will improve the technical level of domestic memory chip manufacturers and occupy a larger market.
Domestic enterprises have increased the purchase of domestic memory chips, which will not only help improve the technical strength and market share of local enterprises, but also help improve the mainland's independent development and innovation capabilities in the field of chips.
The impact of the continuous rise in memory chip prices.
From the above, we can see that memory chip manufacturers in the United States, South Korea and other countries want to monopolize the global memory chip market, which also directly leads to the rise in the price of memory chips.
At the same time, it also caters to a new round of global inflation, and also makes those who have not bought electronic products choose to wait and see.
However, with the skyrocketing price of memory chips, those consumers who have been waiting and watching will undoubtedly get more hard-earned money, and at the same time, they will have more wait-and-see periods.
It can be said that this is also a concession to consumers, but at the same time, it also invisibly lowers consumers' enthusiasm for electronic products, which undoubtedly makes memory chip companies face huge challenges.
However, from the perspective of the state, the mainland can let mainland enterprises get more orders through policy support, which can not only support mainland enterprises, but also reduce state expenditure.
So as to be more conducive to the development of the mainland's industrial chain.
With the brilliant achievements that the mainland has made in manufacturing in recent years, the mainland has a super high production capacity, which is undoubtedly the United States, South Korea and other countries are constantly suppressing the mainland's industry, but this suppression method is undoubtedly inappropriate.
This is not only mainly because of the high market share of memory chip manufacturers, but also to cater to the needs and changes of this market, which can be compensated for by subsequent technological development in advance.
Companies in the United States, South Korea and other countries always want to occupy more market share, but this is unattainable.
epilogue
The price of memory chips has risen significantly, mainly because companies in the United States, South Korea and other countries have achieved a very high market share in this area, which is undoubtedly a large profit margin.
However, there are still many good prospects for the development of domestic enterprises, and at present, the mainland's memory chip companies are constantly expanding the global market at the same time, they are also looking for the development of new markets.
At present, mainland enterprises are in a rising period, and in the follow-up development, it will also affect the market share of enterprises in other countries around the world.