Posted on 01/30/2023 4:53:47 AM PST by FarCenter
SEOUL - This time was supposed to be different.
The memory chip sector, famous for its boom-and-bust cycles, had changed its ways. A combination of more disciplined management and new markets for its products – including 5G technology and cloud services – would ensure that companies delivered more predictable earnings.
Yet, less than a year after memory companies made such pronouncements, the US$160 billion (S$210 billion) industry is suffering one of its worst routs ever. There is a glut of the chips sitting in warehouses, customers are cutting orders and product prices have plunged.
The unprecedented crisis is not just wiping out cash at industry leaders SK Hynix and Micron Technology, but also destabilising their suppliers, denting Asian economies that rely on technology exports and forcing the few remaining memory players to form alliances or even consider mergers.
It has been a swift descent from the industry’s pandemic sales surge, which was fuelled by shoppers outfitting home offices and snapping up computers, tablets and smartphones. Now consumers and businesses are holding off on big purchases as they cope with inflation and rising interest rates. Makers of those devices, the main buyers of memory chips, are suddenly stuck with stockpiles of components and have no need for more.
Already, Samsung Electronics and its rivals are losing money on every chip they produce. Their collective operating losses are projected to hit a record US$5 billion this year. Inventories, a critical indicator of demand for memory chips, have more than tripled to record levels, reaching three to four months’ worth of supply.
Samsung looks to be the only one that will escape relatively unscathed, thanks to its heft and diversified business, but even the South Korean giant’s semiconductor division is headed towards losses. The world’s largest maker of chips, smartphones and display panels is set to report fourth-quarter earnings on Tuesday.
Chip manufacturing equipment maker Lam Research said last week that it is seeing an unprecedented reduction in orders as memory customers cut and postpone spending. Executives at the company, which counts Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron as its top customers, declined to predict when such actions might help the memory market rebound.
“We have seen extraordinary measures within the memory market,” said Lam Research chief executive Tim Archer on a call with investors. “It is at levels that we have not seen in 25 years.”
When the chips are down, these, uh... ‘civilized people’? They’ll eat each other. - The Joker
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“snapping up computers, tablets and smartphones”
One only needs one smartphone. The upgrades to a good camera and a bigger screen have mainly been done.
I have two tablets. Neither are pocket portable and have smaller screen than this Chromebook.
Until Microsoft gets Windows stable and stops trying to extract $99/year off each PC customer I’ll not be buying a new computer.
Joker always was ahead of the curve.
This 512GB which I bought October 27, 2020 was $57.99 and is now $36.99:
A 250GB SSD is not under $20. About the best time to buy, by the grace of God.
If there is a glut of chips in warehouses what then of the story of a chip shortage which is why there are still empty car lots with no new cars? Something stinks in Denmark
They forgot to list smuggling income...
Buy linux.
No blue screen, no crashes and only a small learning curve.
I was just about to stay that red hat is easy to use but they actually charge for it I used slackware
My memory chips stopped working a long time ago. It’s time to upgrade them.
Buy Mac: No blue screen, no crashes, no viruses keystroke loggers, antivirus software or OS subscriptions, and no learning curve.
It’s also a good time to buy solid-state drives.
I’ve got an old Samsung 8 Android plus an old Dell desktop. An older Dell crashed and I had a local shop extract the disc data and transfer it to a slightly newer refurbished Dell. I hardly ever use the desktop now. I get an itching for a sexy new Dell laptop occasionally, but after “building” what I want at the Dell site...I “X” out of it and forget about it. I’m not spending that much on new tech this late in life because I’ve got more than enough tech right now.
There appear to be a lot of refurbished business desktops on the market with Intel gen 7 or older processors that can’t run Windows 11. $250 gets you an i5 or i7 machine with 8 GB and a 256 or 512 GB SSD. Has anyone tried these? Success loading Linux?
Different kinds of chips, not the type discussed in the article.
What does this refer to? "...extract $99/year off each PC customer."
Reads like the boom & bust in the housing economy. Hence why not all markets, including the chip biz. We can call it a correction!
This article is about memory chips.
Lead times for other chips is still one year or longer.
“Buy Mac: No blue screen, no crashes, no viruses keystroke loggers, antivirus software or OS subscriptions, and no learning curve.
I agree 100% I also run Windows 7 inside my Mac using Parallels. Best of both worlds. Mrs. BBB333 has Windows 8.1 running in her Mac.
As for memory I just purchased a 2 TB SSD ($189.99) for my Mac as it’s 750 GB SSD is full. the 2 TB SSD was less than 1/2 of what I paid for the 750 GB SSD a few years ago...
I’ll do the clone this week and replace the SSD this weekend...
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