DRAM suppliers are having difficulty maintaining their prices

General demand in the server DRAM market has yet to recover, according to a new analyst report.

Prices across the entire server market have been fluctuating in July, reports DRAMeXchange, a division of TrendForce.

"Agents are beginning to grow conservative towards the market, and they are selling the original suppliers’ products at a lower price to clients in order to boost sales," the firm said in a statement. 

"With demand not picking up, original DRAM suppliers are having difficulty in maintaining their prices."

DRAMeXchange analyst Angel Liou said PC DRAM prices are showing greater decline, adding that falling DDR4 prices are leading to a notable price reduction for DDR3 memory too.

"The average contract prices for 8 GB and 16 GB DDR3 R-DIMM products were respectively down to $64 and $116 by the end of July, representing a monthly drop of five to six per cent," DRAMeXchange added. "DDR4 R-DIMM memory had an even greater price decrease in July, with both 8 GB and 16 GB products falling by eight to nine per cent on average compared with the prior month.

"The current price difference between DDR3 and DDR4 is just seven per cent and will continue to shrink."

The analyst estimates that prices of 32HB R-DIMM products will become more competitive, due to the increase in the 8GB chip output, with 32GB modules set to have a better cost structure and margin going forwards. 

Samsung topped the global market for server DRAM chips in the first quarter of 2015, reports Yonhapnews.

Samsung took up 46.9 percent of sales in the world’s server DRAM market in Q1 this year, with SK Hynix accounting for 33.5 per cent of the market and Micron with a 17.5 per cent share of the market.

The server DRAM market is estimated to reach $8 billion in 2015 and is expected to grow to $13.4 billion in 2019.