Coronavirus not expected to affect global DRAM and NAND supplies

[midian182]

In brief: The Coronavirus outbreak is affecting a number of industries, including the tech world, but a new report claims one area that won’t be impacted is memory supplies.

There have been over 20,000 cases of the virus, which has caused 427 deaths to date. It’s resulted in Huawei canceling its developer conference, tech giants such as Facebook and Razer restricting workers from traveling to China, and an Apple analyst slashing an iPhone shipment forecast by 10 percent. We’ve also seen the Chinese government close Foxconn and Samsung factories, while Tesla temporarily closed down its Shanghai factory.

According to a DRAMeXchange report, DRAM production won’t be affected by the Coronavirus, mostly because the manufacturing companies aren’t located near Wuhan, the source of the outbreak.

Only one Chinese DRAM maker is located anywhere near Wuhan: ChanXin Memory Technologies, whose plant is 236 miles away. The outbreak has not disrupted the factory, and its expansion plans will not be affected by any transportation restrictions imposed by the Chinese government as it holds a special license.

Out of the three major suppliers—Micron, Samsung and SK Hynix—only SK Hynix's production base is located inside China, and, as it’s 435 miles away from Wuhan, hasn't been impacted.

"Also, during the Chinese New Year, the shifts of most fab employees have already been scheduled, so the production line remains operational. Overall, there is currently no substantial impact on DRAM production, but it is still imperative to monitor whether the potential spreading of the virus can affect China’s logistics and transportation system, subsequently causing a nationwide material shortage," writes DRAMeXchange.

When it comes to NAND, both China's Yangtze Memory Technologies Co. and Wuhan Xinxin Semiconductor Manufacturing Co have plants inside Wuhan and have announced that non-frontline personnel can work from home. But with the companies’ output making up less than 1 percent of the global NAND supply, any disruption should have a minimal effect on the market.

Image credit: helloabc via Shutterstock

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https://www.techspot.com/news/83854-coronavirus-not-expected-affect-global-dram-nand-supplies.html

 

[VitalyT]

Coronavirus not expected to affect global DRAM and NAND supplies

...no, only its consumers.

 

[JordLevy]

Not really news worthy :/

 

[psycros]

Just read an article elsewhere saying the virus would almost certainly lead to price gouging by Chinese companies. Ironically, I'd happily pay Apple prices for a PC if it was built in the free world and had good support after the sale.

 

[p51d007]

When you have a population of BILLIONS, what's a few thousand deaths? Just bury/cremate them and
line up some more "willing workers" to take up the slack.

 

[BadThad]

When you have a population of BILLIONS, what's a few thousand deaths? Just bury/cremate them and
line up some more "willing workers" to take up the slack.

That's the communist way! Only those at the top hold the power and wealth.....just like under Bernie's plan!

 

[Polycount]

Great! Hundreds might die, but at least I can still get my RAM on the cheap.

 

[Yynxs]

"...According to a DRAMeXchange report, DRAM production won’t be affected by the Coronavirus, ...."

Apparently, the word "yet" does not translate from the Chinese iconograpy.

 

[Red999]

Great! Hundreds might die, but at least I can still get my RAM on the cheap.

dram chips are mostly produced in south korea and sdram pcb is quite simple which the production is likely very automatic.
smartphone and bigger hardware will be impacted because the assembly still needs manual labor

 

[toooooot]

On first picture you see poor folks carrying bags of dram and nand chips home for every family member to have enough file storage as well as ram for all the browsing and playing mobile fornite needs.

 

[Sir Alex Ice]

Whoever wrote this has no clue about how things really are.

1st thing to know is that most of the PCB factories are located in Wuhan. So anything that needs a PCB, from a TV remote control to the latest VGA will be in trouble. Anything and everything.

2nd thing to know is that many factories that have nothing to do with Wuhan except, I don't know, need workers and supply of raw materials and parts from other factories will not get any of them. China is basically in lock-down.

3rd thing to know is basic Chinese psychology, if the wind blows the wrong way production yield is affected and prices go so up up and away that Superman would stare in shame.

Small extra fact: some of the Philips and AOC monitors are produced in the Wuhan factory of the group.