On the supply side, thanks to the strong demand for chromebooks and TVs, which pushed up the demand for low- and medium-capacity eMMC products (including 64GB and below), most of the original manufacturers have stopped updating such products, only using 2D or 3D NAND 64 In response to older processes such as layers, the proportion of the old process in the original factory’s supply continues to decline. In consideration of profitability, the original factory’s willingness to directly supply is reduced, prompting customers to obtain NAND Flash components and controllers from the module factory Volume.
The analysis pointed out that although the current overall NAND Flash market is still in a state of oversupply, the insufficient capacity of controllers makes the supply of low and medium capacity in short supply. The price increase of this component may lead to an increase in fixed costs, and OEMs and other purchasers will also put pressure on it, which may cause some of the capacity products (such as 32/64GB required for chromebooks) with strong demand from module factories to be available in the first quarter of 2021. The price increase is possible.
In terms of SSD products, the supply is dominated by original manufacturers such as Samsung, and most of them are in-house products. They have relatively long-term capacity arrangements with wafer foundries, and there are currently no reports of price increases or shortages. However, TrendForce has also observed the extended delivery period, coupled with the trend of PCIe 4.0 generation products to expand the proportion of outsourcing vendors, which means that the possibility of future price trends being affected by outsourcing vendors will increase.
