Far East memory shipments on hold after Hynix explosions

Following the huge chemical explosions that took out 15% of the world's memory production a short while ago, KitGuru has now been in contact with several major memory companies and we have been told “Everything is on hold”.

As KitGuru reported earlier today, Hynix fabrication plants 1 and 2 (FABs) have been put out of action following huge chemical explosions.

With the latest estimates placing Hynix somewhere around 30% of the world's DRAM production – for Hynix to lose half its capacity in seconds is about as serious as it gets in the technology market.

High performance GDDR5 from these FABs is crucial to the production of nVidia's fastest GeForce GTX cards, so if you were thinking about buying one – then NOW might be the right time.

Our sources in the Far East have just told us that major memory brands have stopped shipping anything at all, until they know the full extent of the damage and how the markets will react.

This makes sense.

If you are a major memory brand and your warehouses in the Far East, Europe, USA etc are all packed full of product that was destined to be sold as the ‘pre-explosion price', why wouldn't you wait a day or two to see just how far the memory price will jump?

Given the profiling information we have seen on Hynix so far, it seems as though the slower cheaper memory in the world will ‘float up' in price a little, while the performance product pricing will leap up like a leopard.

KitGuru says: When the floods hit Western Digital in Thailand, the effect on the global market was significant, immediate and long-lasting. We can't see this being any different. It took over 12 months for pricing to come back to pre-flood levels. Want to bet this will be the same?

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