Next DRAM and NAND Flash Quotes Bearish

US-based memory maker Micron predicts that DRAM and NAND Flash quotation will continue to decline in the second quarter of fiscal 2011 (December 2010 to February 2011), in which DRAM prices will drop by about 25%, and NANDFlash prices will fall About 10%, Micron said it will focus on miniaturization of process technology, in order to continue to reduce production costs, in response to demand than expected market conditions.

The end-user demand in the personal computer (PC) market was not as expected, causing the DRAM market to fall into a serious oversupply and quotations continued to decline. In addition, the NAND Flash quotation continued to fall, and Micron profited in the first quarter of fiscal year 2011, but for five consecutive quarters. All of them delivered consecutive profit reports, and the financial results were not far from market expectations.

Micron’s revenue for the first quarter of 2011 was US$2.3 billion, net profit was US$155 million, and earnings per share was US$0.15; it was comparable to revenue of US$2.5 billion in the fourth quarter of 2010, but net profit from the previous quarter was US$342 million, the first quarter Profits have been significantly reduced, while the previous quarter's earnings per share were as high as $0.32. The first quarter earnings per share were also low.

If compared with the first quarter of 2010 in the same period of the previous year, when the annual revenue was 1.7 billion U.S. dollars, but the net profit reached 204 million U.S. dollars, the earnings per share was 0.23 U.S. dollars. By contrast, the first quarter of 2011 profitability. Also reduced.

The gross margin of the memory product line in the first quarter of 2011 was 26%, which was a significant decrease from 37% in the fourth quarter of 2010. This was mainly due to the impact of falling prices, but the decrease in manufacturing costs also offset the impact of some falling prices.

Micron said 2011! In the first quarter of the year, ASPs of DRAM and NAND Flash fell by 23% and 15% to 20%, respectively. Looking ahead to the price trend in the second quarter, DRAM and NAND Flash prices are expected to continue to fall, with DRAM prices falling by about 25%. And NANDFlash prices will fall by about 10%.

In terms of the shipment and bit growth rate of Micron in the first quarter of 2011, DRAM shipments grew by 5%, the growth rate dropped by 3%; NAND Flash shipments grew by 20%, while the growth rate of the NAND Flash grew by 8%. Looking forward to the second quarter, Micron said that it is expected that the DRAM-based growth rate will be close to double-digit, while the NANDFlash bit growth rate is about 15%.

Although DRAM and NAND Flash prices are expected to continue to fall, Micron is not slacking in the pace of process miniaturization. After entering the 50-nanometer process, it will also be transferred to the 42-nm process as soon as possible; Micron said that the first in 2011 The quarterly DRAM and NAND Flash costs have dropped by 10% and 12%, respectively, and it is expected that the DRAM costs will be further reduced by nearly 10% in the second quarter, and NANDFlash will drop another single digit.