3D NAND sales plummet across the globe as demand falls
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Demand for 3D NAND memory fell sharply in the third quarter of 2022, driving overall NAND manufacturing industry revenue down 24.3% quarter on quarter, according to to research (opens in new tab) from market research firm TrendForce.
The NAND Flash industry recorded total revenue of approximately $13.71 billion for 3Q22, which Trendforce linked to below-expected numbers in terms of total shipments of end products such as consumer electronics, workstations and servers, coupled with generally pessimistic economic outlook and lower corporate capital expenditures.
3D NAND shipments fell 6.7% during the quarter according to the research, but this then led to an 18.3% drop in average prices over the period as manufacturers attempted to lower prices as part of their efforts to make their products more attractive.
What is 3D NAND?
3D NAND is a variant of non-volatile flash memory in which memory cells are stacked vertically on top of each other, unlike 2D NAND, which has only one memory cell.
Who took the blow?
This decline was not felt equally among manufacturers.
South Korean hardware giant SK Group’s revenue fell 29.8% quarter-over-quarter to $2.54 billion, ranking it number three among NAND memory manufacturers.
Samsung remained at the top of the totem poll of NAND manufacturers with a market share of 31.4%, shifting $4.3 billion in hardware for the period despite a 28.1% quarter-over-quarter revenue decline.
In line with the broader industry decline, Western Digital saw its revenue fall 28.3% QoQ to $1.72 billion, while Micron registered a 26.2% decline in revenue to $1.69 billion.
The market’s outlook remains pessimistic, at least for the foreseeable future according to TrendForce.
The analyst firm predicts that due to high inventories and falling prices, the NAND Flash industry will see a further decline of nearly 20% in total revenue in the fourth quarter.
Trendforce predicts, with the exception of Samsung, that suppliers will be more cautious in planning output and will try to restore the dynamics between supply and demand as soon as possible, taking measures such as reducing wafer imports and slowing the pace of technology migration.
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