DRAM market drops 14% in Q3

El Segundo (CA) – Hynix and the much smaller Etron and Elite were the only top 10 DRAM manufacturers able to post annual revenue growth in Q3.

The DRAM market has begun its journey from an enormous oversupply in the second quarter to a more balanced situation Q3, but most manufacturers suffered hefty revenue declines over Q3 2006. According to iSuppli, the overall annual decline amounted to about 14%, down from $9.25 billion in Q3 2006 to $7.96 billion in Q3 2007. Sequentially, revenues were up from $7.36 billion, which was mainly attributed to a smaller increase in supply (+9.8% as compared to +23.2% in Q2).

Market leader Samsung limited its revenue decrease to 16% ($2.63 billion to $2.20 billion), while Qimonda at #3 was down 37% year over year ($1.55 billion to $974 million). Nanya’s, Powerchip’s and Promos’ sales were also down substantially. Among the ten largest DRAM manufacturers, only Hynix, now the world’s second largest DRAM manufacturer, Etron (ranked 9th) and Elite (10th) were able to increase their revenues.

Hynix was up 26% from $1.45 billion to $1.82 billion, Etron climbed 35% from $80 million to $108 million and Elite was up 43% from $42 million to $60 million.