Corporate demand for SSDs drives NAND flash sales

As the market research institute Trendforce announced, the NAND flash industry achieved sales of 17.6 billion dollars in the third quarter. This means that sales climbed by a significant 52 percent compared to the same quarter of the previous year, when a good 9.2 billion dollars were reported. However, the increase in sales is essentially not organic growth, but is due to the price increase. The strong demand in the corporate environment alone is said to have caused an increase in average sales prices of 15 percent.

As far as further developments are concerned, analysts are expecting a drop in sales of up to 10 percent for the current fourth quarter compared to Q3. Although prices in the corporate environment are expected to remain stable, demand in the consumer sector is expected to fall.

The Trendforce study also shows Samsung to be the largest manufacturer of NAND flash components in the third quarter; with sales of $6.2 billion, the group has a market share of 35.2 percent. A year ago, the South Korean electronics giant’s market share was 31.4 percent. As in the same quarter last year, second place was occupied by the SK Group with a market share of 20.6 percent. Kioxia and Micron follow in second place with market shares of 15.1 and 14.2 percent, respectively. (rd)