Samsung expands presence in NAND flash market in Q4

Seoul, March 3 Despite revenue decline, Samsung Electronics has further upped its leadership in the global NAND flash market in the fourth quarter of 2020, a report showed on Wednesday.

The South Korean tech giant, also the leader in the DRAM sector, had a 32.9 per cent share of the global NAND flash market in terms of revenue in the October-December period, up 1.5 percentage points from a quarter earlier, according to market tracker TrendForce.

But Samsung's revenue from NAND flash products came to a total of US$4.64 billion in the last three months of 2020, down 3.4 per cent from a quarter earlier.

Samsung's NAND flash bit shipments rose by 7-9 per cent quarter-on-quarter on strong procurements from the smartphone and PC segments, according to TrendForce, but its average selling price (ASP) of NAND flash products declined by more than 10 percent from the previous quarter.

"With the market leaning toward oversupply, Samsung had to lower prices and thereby experienced a revenue decline," TrendForce said.

Japan's Kioxia Corp. was the runner-up with a 19.5 per cent market share, up 2.3 percentage points from a quarter earlier, though its revenue plunged 11.4 percent quarter-on-quarter to $2.74 billion, reports Yonhap news agency.

Chipmaker Western Digital came in third with a 14.4 per cent market share, down 1.1 percentage points from a quarter earlier, after its revenue dropped 2.1 percent quarter-on-quarter to $2.03 billion.

South Korean chipmaker SK hynix ranked fourth with a 11.6 per cent market share, down from an 11.7 per cent share a quarter earlier. Its NAND flash revenue in the fourth quarter reached $1.63 billion, down 0.2 per cent from three months earlier.

Micron Technology and Intel came in fourth and fifth in the NAND flash market with market shares of 11.2 per cent and 8.9 per cent in the fourth quarter, respectively.

Intel, which agreed to sell its NAND flash business unit to SK hynix for $9 billion, saw its revenue increase 4.85 percent quarter-on-quarter to $1.2 billion.

Overall, the global NAND flash industry saw its revenue reach $14.1 billion in the fourth quarter, down 2.9 per cent from a quarter earlier, as companies in server and data center segments continue to scale back their procurements.

( With inputs from IANS )