Prices of semiconductor memory chips, the key products of Samsung Electronics and Hynix, are soaring. Market researcher DrameXchange on Tuesday said the spot price of 1Gb DDR2, the best-selling DRAM chip mainly used for PCs, stood at US$2.06, up 10.5 percent from a week ago and up 31.6 percent month-on-month. The price was $2 in August last year, right before the financial crisis broke out, but plunged as low as $0.62 in December.
The prices of flash memory, a component mainly used for mobile phones and digital cameras, are also rising sharply.
The increase in DRAM prices helps explain why Micron Technology beat earnings estimates earlier this week.
