SanDisk, Yangtze Memory Technologies, and Micron all raise prices; Samsung and SK Hynix may follow suit

On March 7, a price increase notice letter suspected to be sent by NAND flash memory manufacturer Sandisk to its partners showed that the manufacturer plans to increase prices of all products for channels and consumer customers from April 1, and the increase will exceed 10%.

SanDisk said in the notice that it expects the storage industry to soon transition to a state of supply exceeding demand, and the recent tariff actions will affect supply and increase costs.

Coincidentally, Micron also notified its customers earlier this month that new order prices would increase by an average of 11%. It is expected that Korean memory manufacturers Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix will follow suit.

There are two main reasons for the current surge in storage prices. First, the five major original equipment manufacturers, Samsung, Hynix, Micron, Western Digital and Kioxia, began to reduce NAND production in 24Q4, and the effect of the production reduction is expected to begin to be reflected in 25Q2.

TrendForce’s survey pointed out that since 2023, all NAND flash memory manufacturers have deeply realized the severe impact of oversupply on the industry, especially the annual growth rate of NAND flash memory demand has been significantly reduced from 30% to 10-15%. Only if suppliers actively adjust their production strategies can the price downward cycle be avoided from continuing to expand.

Therefore, at the beginning of 2025, flash memory manufacturers have taken more resolute production reduction measures to reduce the annual production scale. This move will help to quickly alleviate the pressure of market supply and demand imbalance and lay the foundation for a price rebound.

Second, the demand for NAND flash memory is strong. With the emergence of a wave of AI computing power construction, the demand for server storage is strong.

On the other hand, China’s consumer policy of providing replacement subsidies has directly boosted the recovery in demand for smartphones and PCs.

In addition, the rising costs caused by the US tariff policy is also one of the reasons for the price increase.