Electronic Component Market News – Week 2 of September
1. Spot price for 16-layer HBM4 reaches as high as $3,500 per piece.
2. 36GB HBM3E spot price stands at around $2,100, while the long-term contract price is only $365–$510, representing a 4–5x premium. At one point, the price quoted in Korean Won hit 2.87 million KRW, nearly 5 times the contract price at peak.
3. Samsung has allocated approximately 70% of its memory capacity up to 2031 to major clients including NVIDIA and Microsoft; even these industry giants cannot receive the full allocated quantities under their contracts.
4. Data from the Korea International Trade Association: The export unit price of DRAM for AI applications such as HBM and LPDDR rose from $16.76 in May to $22.9 in July.
5. Spot average price of DDR4 8Gb (1G×8) die stays above $45, with a nearly 1% increase on the day; the average price of 16Gb die surpasses $93.
6. Spot average price of DDR5 16Gb die is approximately $54.
7. Contract market: The average price of mainstream PC DDR4 8Gb DRAM in August rose by another 4.2% month-on-month, hitting an all-time high tracked by the institute. Spot prices remain heavily premium to contract prices, and shortages across distribution channels persist.
8. NOR Flash: Contract prices have surged more than 100% cumulatively in H1 2026. High-density models are expected to see another 60%–65% price hike in H2.
9. CXMT’s 10,667 Mbps LPDDR5X has entered mass production, debuting on the Nubia NaviX Ultra. This marks the first commercial launch of China’s fastest mobile DRAM to date.
Passive Components – MLCC
1. Samsung Electro-Mechanics Q4 quotation (TrendForce, Sep 1): Prices of consumer-grade X5R MLCC for OEM and ODM customers will rise by 25%–30% on average; high-end X6S for AI servers will increase by 10%–20%.
2. Partial distributors received price increases as early as August.
Other Updates
1. TI’s third price hike this year: Following two rounds in March and May, this is its third increase of 2026 and the fifth in the past 12 months. Some part numbers have seen price rises ranging from 15% to 85%.
2. ADI: Notified customers of a price increase effective Sep 13, with notifications sent in late August.
3. TI tight-supply families: TPS, UCC, OPA, ISO, BQ and other product lines face tight fab capacity.
4. STMicroelectronics: Announced its third price increase within less than five months on Aug 23. Automotive MCUs have seen cumulative price growth of 15%–20%.
5. Lead times for many STM32 part numbers have jumped from 20–30 weeks in March to 40–52 weeks.
6. Lead times for power semiconductors generally exceed 30 weeks, with some extending to 52 weeks.
7. Hua Hong Hongli announced a USD 6.95 billion (approx. RMB 46.8 billion) investment to expand its 12-inch specialty process fab in Wuxi. The planned monthly capacity is 55,000 wafers, focusing on non-volatile memory, power devices, analog and power management specialty process platforms.