Samsung retains top slot in Q1 memory chip business despite downturn
Samsung Electronics kept the largest share of 42.8 per cent in the DRAM market, unchanged from the previous quarter, reports Yonhap News Agency.
Representative image (File)
SEOUL: Samsung Electronics retained its top spot in the global memory chip market in the first quarter (Q1) despite lacklustre earnings amid the chip glut, a report showed on Sunday.
SK hynix Inc, on the other hand, was pushed back to third place from number 2 compared with a year earlier, due largely to the output cut that came before Samsung,as per the market tracker Omdia.
Samsung Electronics kept the largest share of 42.8 per cent in the DRAM market, unchanged from the previous quarter, reports Yonhap News Agency.
Samsung’s DRAM revenue amounted to $4.01 billion in the January-March period, a 61.2 per cent fall from the previous year’s $10.35 billion, Omdia said. Compared with three months earlier, the revenue sank 25.2 per cent.
The DRAM market share of SK hynix stood at 24.7 per cent in Q1, down 2.3 percentage points from the previous quarter.
SK hynix was dragged down by one spot to third place, and Micron Technology Inc took over the second spot with 27.2 per cent. SK hynix, which makes most of its profit from selling memory chips, reported an operating loss of $2.5 billion for the three-month period, swinging to the red from a year earlier.
“SK hynix had preemptively begun to reduce production as DRAM prices fell sharply in the first quarter, which led to a decrease in shipments and a temporary decline in the market share,” an industry source said.
