SK Hynix’s Chinese Factory Goes Up In Flames, Could Cause Memory Price Hikes

Pictures coming in from China show that SK Hynix’s Chinese Factory containing fabrications #1 and #2 has burst into a raging fire due to an internal chemical explosion incident.

Thankfully the incident has yet to cause any fatalities. Reports are suggesting that world supply could be hit significantly as these two fabrications make up to 15% of world supply of memory shipments – meaning half of SK Hynix’s production capabilities could now be gone. SK Hynix make up 30% of world supply in total. Memory prices rose 10% with the news breaking and are expected to continue to rise.

Apparently Nvidia source the majority of their GDDR5 VRAM from this factory and so will now have to start looking for new suppliers. This will force prices of both AMD and Nvidia graphics cards up as the two compete for contracts with the same suppliers.

DRAM companies are reportedly putting all DRAM shipments on hold, leaving the market to fully speculate about the damage and drive prices of DRAM through the roof before they continue releasing inventory at escalated prices. Many are already speculating we will see a similar outcome to the Thai floods replicate itself in the DRAM market. Only time will tell, the key thing to note is if you want any graphics cards or RAM then buy now or forever regret it!

Images courtesy of Chiphell