Samsung reportedly plans to raise DRAM prices by 20% in Q3; manufacturers say they have already received verbal notices
On July 3, reports emerged that Samsung Electronics plans to raise the average selling price of DRAM in the third quarter of this year by 20% quarter over quarter.
“That is true,” said the head of a consumer electronics terminal manufacturer. According to the person, Samsung had already held price negotiations with them in June, and they have now received a verbal notice from Samsung regarding the DRAM price increase.
“The sharp increase in upstream component prices will be passed on to end-product prices, which may suppress some market demand. However, overall prices for consumer electronics products are not very high at the moment, so even if prices rise, it is unlikely to significantly affect users’ purchasing decisions,” the person said.
Another senior industry insider also told reporters that the news of Samsung’s planned 20% DRAM price hike in Q3 is true, and that Samsung has already notified some customers through verbal quotations.
As of publication, Samsung had not issued an official response regarding the Q3 DRAM price increase. — Yicai
KIS: On Memory LTAs
With suppliers' commodity DRAM operating margins already at 80% and gross margins above 90%, prices cannot be raised endlessly on supply and demand dynamics alone. What matters is that at price levels where supplier operating margins exceed 80%, it was the customers, not the suppliers, who first actively proposed three to five year long term agreements. The customers are not unaware of Samsung and SK Hynix's fab plans, and they know that new fab output begins contributing to supply from 2028 onward. The fact that they nonetheless proposed long term agreements covering 2028 and beyond first is evidence that the memory supply shortage will not end within a short period. The key point is that suppliers have used this to secure, for the first time in memory history, a contract structure that sustains high margins over an extended period.
Comparing Micron's LTA with those of Samsung and SK Hynix, SK Hynix has only a price floor with no price ceiling, while Samsung, similar to Micron, is understood to include both a price ceiling and a price floor in its LTA terms. The structure of collecting a portion of annual revenue upfront as advance payments is also similar. The advance payment is a binding condition that prevents arbitrary volume changes after the contract is signed. However, unlike SanDisk, Samsung, and SK Hynix, Micron's advance payment is presumed to be structured as refundable upon maintenance of the contract rather than deducted from revenue. The LTA contract period is similar across all memory suppliers at three to five years per customer. Customers who have already completed their contracts maintain three to five year terms beginning in 2Q26 and running through 2028 or 2030. The fact that all five memory suppliers (Samsung, SK Hynix, Micron, Kioxia, SanDisk), and not a single supplier alone, are signing similar three to five year LTAs is what explains the structural change in the memory business model.