DRAM makers could be fined Billions in antitrust fines in China

Over the past two years, the PC industry has seen considerable increases in both DRAM and NAND prices, making several computer components more expensive to produce. In this case, supply has not kept up with increasing demand, with PCs, mobile phones, home consoles and other products using more RAM and NAND-based storage than ever before.    

Chinese regulators are currently looking into DRAM market, investigating the likes of Samsung, Micron and SK Hynix, who combined control over 90% of the DRAM market. All three manufacturers have been visited by the Chinese Anti-Monopoly Bureau and have stated that they will co-operate with the investigation. 

If these three companies are found to have breached China’s anti-trust laws, each company could be fined between $800 million and $8 billion, with fines based on DRAM sales between 2016 and 2017.  

This investigation also comes at a time where several Chinese companies plan to enter the DRAM market, where today’s high pricing could be seen as a good thing for Chinese startups, which are set to start production in late 2018 or early 2019.

It has been speculated that Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron have manipulated the DRAM market to keep prices high and have delayed capacity expansions to coincide with the introduction of Chinese-made DRAM, which could crash the market and leave Chinese producers without any profit. In effect, this move could kill off China’s DRAM startups, keeping the big three dominant in the DRAM market.