Report warns NAND memory prices could increase 40%, leading to more expensive M.2 SSDs in 2020

DRAM and NAND memory prices continued to decline in 2019, despite early reports that were announcing possible price hikes throughout the year. DDR5 is ready to make its commercial debut in 2020, so it is only natural that DDR4 module prices take a dive in the meantime, but NAND-based SSD solutions are seeing strong demand from PC / laptop builders as they are much faster than conventional HDDs and even SATA 3 SDDs. The new year is here and yet another report claims that NAND prices are expected to increase by 40% towards the end of 2020.

This time around, the reports might actually be right. Samsung is the biggest supplier of NAND and DRAM memory chips on the market right now, and the latest incident at its Hwaseong facility, where a minor one-minute blackout caused the plant to go out of order for 3 days, is already affecting the supply that is now behind by thousands of wafers. As a direct consequence, many DRAM modules and M.2 SSD models have gone up ~10% in price over the last week. In addition to the strong desktop / laptop builder demand for SSDs, 2020 will also see huge DRAM and SSD orders from Sony and Microsoft for their next gen PS5 and Xbox Series X consoles.

The Hwaseong incident could have a ripple effect throughout the entire 2020, yet NAND prices will most likely see a gradual rise towards the end of the year. DRAM prices may still not be affected to the same extent, as the industry holds its breath for the introduction of the DDR5 standard.