Samsung leads global DRAM memory chip market in Q2

Seoul, Aug 20 (IANS) Samsung has maintained its dominant position in the global DRAM memory chip market with a 43.5 percent share in the second quarter, a new report has said.

Although Samsung's market share was down 0.6 percentage point from three months earlier, its revenue increased 13.8 per cent to $7.4 billion in the June quarter, according to data from market research firm TrendForce.

Dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) is a type of semiconductor memory that stores each bit of data in a memory cell consisting of a tiny capacitor and a transistor, both typically based on metal-oxide-semiconductor technology.

Samsung's local competitor SK hynix Inc. came in second with a 30.1 per cent market share in the second quarter.

US chipmaker Micron Technology came third with a 21 per cent market share, report Yonhap news agency.

"The DRAM market saw an increase in both prices and bit shipments, leading to a double-digit rise in revenue for the three suppliers," TrendForce said.

"On the matter of profitability, all three leading suppliers posted an increase in their operating margins in the second quarter of 2020 as the overall average selling price rose by around 10 per cent".

Samsung's operating margin reached 41 per cent in the second quarter, up from 32 per cent three months ago.

The global DRAM market collected $17.1 billion in revenue in the second quarter, up 15.4 percent from three months ago.

However, TrendForce said that DRAM suppliers are likely to suffer a decline in profitability in the third quarter of the year as chip prices are expected to drop while product shipments stay flat.