techpowerup NAND Flash Pricing Set to Spike 5-10% in Q2 Due to Material Contamination.

[ENTERPRISE]

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WDC recently stated that certain materials were contaminated in late January at NAND Flash production lines in Yokkaichi and Kitakami, Japan which are joint ventures with Kioxia, according to TrendForce's investigations. Before this incident, TrendForce had forecast that the NAND Flash market will see a slight oversupply the entire year and average price from Q1 to Q2 will face downward pressure. However, the impact of WDC's material contamination issue is significant and Samsung's experience during the previous lockdown of Xi'an due to the pandemic has also retarded the magnitude of the NAND Flash price slump. Therefore, the Q1 price drop will diminish to 5~10%. In addition, according to TrendForce, the combined WDC/Kioxia NAND Flash market share in the 3Q21 was as high as 32.5%. The consequences of this latest incident may push the price of NAND Flash in Q2 to spike 5~10%.

Source

 

Safe to say....we saw that coming.

[pio]

Geee, imagine that. 

[Diffident]

And add another 10% just to cover the massive inflation that has occurred over the past year.

[schuck6566]

Don't forget the 20% panic buying increase and the 15% "we can't keep it in stock so you need to be a member" increase.....

[ArchStanton]

I do not have an off the cuff answer to this question myself, but would you fellas think more or less of a manufacturer if they issued a press release that said "We are raising our prices...because we can"?

[J7SC_Orion]

fyi, multiple threads on this ?

 

anyhoo, I recently upgraded all my work and play machines w/ WD and Samsung NVME and WD SSDs and have 10 TB in various M.2 and SSD drives left over as back-up / fortunately. 'I'm not sure' (<sarcasm) why the widespread press releases were necessary, other than expected price impacts , but WD Blue SSD prices of items in stock locally have already increased significantly.

[Diffident]

1 hour ago, ArchStanton said:

I do not have an off the cuff answer to this question myself, but would you fellas think more or less of a manufacturer if they issued a press release that said "We are raising our prices...because we can"?

 

I've gotten email's from some companies recently stating price increases.  Here's a clip of one

 

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We're reminding you of a price increase taking place on Tuesday, February 1, 2022. In most cases, product prices will increase between 5 and 12 percent.

 

Not upset at the company itself, just the condition that we are in, when it partly could have been avoided.

[pio]

7 hours ago, ArchStanton said:

I do not have an off the cuff answer to this question myself, but would you fellas think more or less of a manufacturer if they issued a press release that said "We are raising our prices...because we can"?

I always think honesty is the best policy.  So yes, if a company came flat out and stated, "we're raising our prices because we can", that says EXACTLY the same thing as "there's contamination (that's probably already resolved) so we're going to raise our prices because of that".  They're blame shifting and being dishonest.  I absolutely WOULD respect a company more if they were just blatant with what they're doing.  I may not like the price increase, but I'd respect the honesty and transparency.

 

ASSUMING we're right and they're doing this just for an excuse to raise the prices, yes it would've been a LOT more honest of WD and them to say, "Due to the current rising costs on everything, we are going to have to raise our prices on NAND products too".  That's not too difficult.  They'd get backlash, sure.  But at least they're honest about their intentions.

 

Keep in mind, I DO understand certain circumstances might arrise that cause certain products to go up in cost.  I understood the flood price increase for the first few weeks.  Just as I "would normally" have understood this one if it wasn't just the same crisis on repeat.  This is where the transparency and honesty comes in.

Edited February 13, 2022 by pioneerisloud

[Sir Beregond]

Noticed a lot of NVME SSD's move to "email for price" on my local Micro Center's website.