Thanks to growing demand for pre-stock procurement from brokers/traders, couples with speculation about further capacity cut at a key vendor, brisk transactions were seen recently. As of today (January 5), prices of mainstream 16Gb and 32Gb MLC chips have appreciated by 2.6% and 4.8% to USD2.31 and USD4.83, respectively, over the past two weeks.

While some demand is surfaced from pre-stock procurement prior to Chinese New Year (late January), some is stemmed from brokers/traders who rush to source chips from the spot market after major vendors announced to trim their capacity.

Already having seen noticeable surge in transaction volume, we expect the trend to sustain throughout 1Q09 as the announced capacity cut exerts greater impact to the market.