Thursday, November 2nd 2023

Samsung Said to be Increasing NAND Pricing by 20% Per Quarter

by
TheLostSwede
 Discuss (41 Comments)
If you've been putting off purchasing that shiny new SSD, you might want to consider doing it before the end of the year, especially if you've been eyeing a model from Samsung, as the company will reportedly be increasing the pricing of its NAND flash starting now. NAND flash might have hit rock bottom, with all major manufacturers except possibly YMTC having cut production to try to push up pricing, but so far, nothing appears to have worked. Despite this, reports coming out of Taiwan's UDN News via TrendForce are suggesting that Samsung is getting ready to hike the price of its NAND flash products by 20 percent per quarter until the middle of 2024.

Admittedly this only gives Samsung about two and a half quarters to increase the pricing, but that's potentially three increases of 20 percent per increase. Samsung has reportedly already increased its NAND wafer prices by 10 to 20 percent this quarter, which according to TrendForce has had a knock on effect on enterprise SSD pricing, which has increased by five to 10 percent already. TrendForce is forecasting a consumer SSD price increase of eight to 13 percent before the end of the year, which might not seem like much, but if the pricing increases for another couple of quarters, we could be looking at 30 to 40 percent more expensive SSDs in the not too distant future. As such, it's going to be worth keeping an eye on SSD pricing, as it's likely that Samsung's competitors will follow suit and increase their NAND pricing as well, which will affect the broader market.
Source: TrendForce

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41 Comments on Samsung Said to be Increasing NAND Pricing by 20% Per Quarter

#1
FoulOnWhite
20% is quite a chunk. Glad i bought my 4TB SN850X when i did as this could open the gates for others
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#2
Ownedtbh
only the chips or the SSD as a whole?
I dont think that increasing the price of NAND would actually increase the price of the SSD by a whole lot.
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#3
Arpeegee
This may work for enterprise customers but good luck getting any more sales with regular customers. Samsung isn't on top anymore and the competition is always releasing cheaper alternatives.

Remember that storage prices go down overall, never back up as they increase storage capacity per chip. Never seen SSD prices go back up once they break a price barrier. I believe 2TB PCIe 4.0 drives for ~$170 or under is the new normal and will never go back up no matter what Samsung tries.
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#5
evernessince
The only bright spot here is that YMTC hasn't cut production so it's likely that the Samsung, Micron, SK Hynix NAND cartel would loose customers to more budget YTMC NAND based drives. I'm not so fond of YMTC but it would be nice to see someone throw a wrench in this blatant attempt at market pricing control.
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#6
rv8000
Ownedtbhyou are comparing Kingstons TLC Chips vs Samsungs MLC chip.
MLC is more expensive
I thought Samsung labeling their newer drives as containing MLC was just naming shenanigans? Pretty sure all of their consumer m.2 drives are qlc or tlc (“multilayer tlc”).
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#7
Denver
The price increase in NAND should not be directly tied to the final product's cost. NAND prices have been consistently decreasing over an extended period, but manufacturers have not reflected this significant reduction in their product pricing. Come to think of it, they could use this excuse to raise prices immediately.:rolleyes:
Posted on Reply
#9
mb194dc
Great idea, they'll probably find inventory mounts up and up.

Demand is totally in the toilet.
Posted on Reply
#10
mechtech
mb194dcGreat idea, they'll probably find inventory mounts up and up.

Demand is totally in the toilet.
Well I think there is a big desire for 4TB and 8TB ssds, unfortunatly the pricing and (availability 8TB+) in those capacitys are crushing the demand.
Posted on Reply
#11
maxfly
I couldn't help but laugh when I read this. Increase NAND all you want Samsung. It's not going to magically pull demand up with it.
Posted on Reply
#12
TheLostSwede
News Editor
Ownedtbhonly the chips or the SSD as a whole?
I dont think that increasing the price of NAND would actually increase the price of the SSD by a whole lot.
As I wrote in the news post, SSDs are expected to to increase 8-13 percent in the coming months, but it might not be until early next year.
rv8000I thought Samsung labeling their newer drives as containing MLC was just naming shenanigans? Pretty sure all of their consumer m.2 drives are qlc or tlc (“multilayer tlc”).
MLC is now being used as more than one layer by Samsung, or in simple terms, anything that's not SLC is MLC according to Samsung, since M stands for Multi.
DenverThe price increase in NAND should not be directly tied to the final product's cost. NAND prices have been consistently decreasing over an extended period, but manufacturers have not reflected this significant reduction in their product pricing. Come to think of it, they could use this excuse to raise prices immediately.:rolleyes:
It's not expected to happen over night, as per the news post, but it's expected to happen of the next few months, so new shipments might increase in cost and the next one after that goes up a bit more in price and so on.

Also, for those looking at getting a YMTC NAND flash based SSD, this might be worth a read.
It would be tricky to verify, but it appears that some of their NAND might have some data retention issues when the drives aren't powered up regularly. Some drives are even affected when powered up regularly.
goughlui.com/2023/10/10/psa-ssds-with-ymtc-flash-prone-to-failure-check-your-ssds/
Posted on Reply
#13
Minus Infinity
Scamsung by name and by nature.

My old 970 Evo Plus is my last Scamsung ssd.
Posted on Reply
#14
Arpeegee
TheLostSwedeAs I wrote in the news post, SSDs are expected to to increase 8-13 percent in the coming months, but it might not be until early next year...

...It's not expected to happen over night, as per the news post, but it's expected to happen of the next few months, so new shipments might increase in cost and the next one after that goes up a bit more in price and so on.
I remember reading an analysis report earlier in the year they expected prices to go up by winter/holiday but I haven't seen that materialize. Unless they're strictly talking enterprise?
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#15
bonehead123
FoulOnWhite20% is quite a chunk. Glad i bought my 4TB SN850X when i did as this could open the gates for others
Me too, since I bought a large qty of them (@$269) for my upcoming client builds + a couple for my own rigs :D
ArpeegeeI believe 2TB PCIe 4.0 drives for ~$170 or under is the new normal and will never go back up no matter what Samsung tries.
If $170 is an accurate price atm (which I don't believe it is), then your statement is NOT accurate, seeins how I bought quite a number of 2TB drives (850x's) just a few months ago for $119-134...
OwnedtbhI dont think that increasing the price of NAND would actually increase the price of the SSD by a whole lot.
NAND is the most expensive component of an nvme drive, and when they start jacking up the prices the charge other drive mfgr's for the chips, those mfgr's will have no choice but to raise their prices on their drives, cause they certainly aren't gonna just absorb 10-20% per quarter (or more) cost increases without passing that on to the end users...

And as for the YingumYangum-based drives..... this forum is as close as they will ever get to any of my machines !
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#17
Frick
Fishfaced Nincompoop
Well boo. I'll never get a 4TB SSD now.
Posted on Reply
#18
Tek-Check
DenverThe price increase in NAND should not be directly tied to the final product's cost. NAND prices have been consistently decreasing over an extended period, but manufacturers have not reflected this significant reduction in their product pricing. Come to think of it, they could use this excuse to raise prices immediately.:rolleyes:
NVMe SSDs are almost 50% cheaper in Europe than before. Two years ago, I could buy 1TB drive for roughly the same price as 2TB drive today. NAND plays important part in it.
Posted on Reply
#19
Broken Processor
Unless it prompted other manufacturers to follow suit it could be a huge mistake there are plenty of alternatives in retail space enterprise could be another story but I kinda doubt it.
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#20
MacZ
Broken ProcessorUnless it prompted other manufacturers to follow suit it could be a huge mistake there are plenty of alternatives in retail space enterprise could be another story but I kinda doubt it.
Samsung, Micron and SK Hynix are posting losses. Toshiba has very reduced profits.

news.skhynix.com/sk-hynix-reports-third-quarter-2023-financial-results/
www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/toshiba-q3-operating-profit-slumps-cuts-full-year-estimate-2023-02-14/
investors.micron.com/news-releases/news-release-details/micron-technology-inc-reports-results-fourth-quarter-and-full-6
www.cnbc.com/2023/10/10/samsung-earnings-preview-q3-2023-chip-losses-weigh-on-profit.html

All big NAND producers will have to increase prices to restore profitability.

The NAND prices crashed because the big demand at the exit of the COVID period created excess production and inventory that had to be liquidated.

Demand now has probably stabilized and fire sale prices will go away.

It's pretty obvious.
Posted on Reply
#21
kondamin
Not touching prices until inventory reduces would be a far better strategy than simply raising prices in a recession to depression market.
Posted on Reply
#22
Vayra86
Minus InfinityScamsung by name and by nature.

My old 970 Evo Plus is my last Scamsung ssd.
Yep.

I'm done with this lying piece of shit company too.
They just can't stop misleading people. Display, NAND, CPUs... trust is gone. Indefinitely.

Also I hate their commercials, and quality wise, its really hit/miss too.
Posted on Reply
#23
shadad
its ok. am not buying any gadget until the 2nd half of 2024 :).
am waiting many things on that year not only the SSDs.
Posted on Reply
#24
Bwaze
MacZAll big NAND producers will have to increase prices to restore profitability.

The NAND prices crashed because the big demand at the exit of the COVID period created excess production and inventory that had to be liquidated.

Demand now has probably stabilized and fire sale prices will go away.

It's pretty obvious.
Increased prices don't lead automatically to bigger revenue. Especially now when it isn't at all clear that "demand has probably stabilized" - we have been hearing that "the next quarter demand will return" for almost two years now.

I' m sure they'll be right one day, but for that the economy will have to turn for the better for large volume of people, and that is nowhere in sight.

In other news, WD is completely exiting SSD bussiness! So someone clearly didn't see the stabilized demand.
Posted on Reply
#25
Denver
Tek-CheckNVMe SSDs are almost 50% cheaper in Europe than before. Two years ago, I could buy 1TB drive for roughly the same price as 2TB drive today. NAND plays important part in it.
Could it very well be the use of newer nand with more layers and consequently greater storage capacity/area? In my opinion, TLC SSDs have been stable at almost the same price for almost 3 years, ignoring specific promotions and defective products.

In the same period, Nand manufacturers reported losses on top of losses. Someone is making a lot of money from this.
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