On June 3, the reporter was informed that after interviewing Samsung and Micron successively last December and May of this year, China’s anti-monopoly agencies launched investigations on Samsung, Hynix, and Micron’s three companies. The content may involve three vendors in recent years. The price of DRAM (memory) market soared and the product tying problem reflected in the industry.
According to reports, China’s anti-monopoly agencies sent out several working groups to carry out “surge investigations” and on-site forensics for the offices of Samsung, Hynix, and Micron in Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen, respectively, marking that the Chinese anti- Open investigation.
Since the third quarter of 2016, the price hike of memory chips has continued to this day and it has been nearly two years. China is the world’s leading consumer of memory chips. In 2017, China imported memory chips of US$88.821 billion, which is higher than 2016. 39.56%.
According to relevant data, in FY 2017, the revenues of the semiconductor businesses of Micron, Samsung, and Hynix were US$10.388 billion, US$253.86 billion, US$8.908 billion, and US$44.68 billion, respectively, which was US$31.6 billion in 2016 fiscal year. The growth rate was 39.16%. In the first quarter of 2018, Samsung, Hynix, and Micron each had a market share of 44.9%, 27.9%, and 22.6% respectively in the DRAM industry. In total, they accounted for 95.4% of the market share. According to industry sources, At present, under the situation of the three DRAM makers monopolizing the market, the upward trend in DRAM market prices will continue.
It is noteworthy that price monopoly behavior is a common market behavior in oligopolistic industries. Between 2005 and 2006, the US Department of Justice had ruled that Samsung, Hynix, Infineon, Elpida, and Micron had monopolised prices from 1999 to 2002. , The first four companies were fined a total of 729 million U.S. dollars. Micron was the first to plead guilty and assisted in the investigation and was exempted from punishment. Of the 279 million U.S. dollar fine, Samsung’s sales penalty was 240 million U.S. dollars, accounting for the company’s 12 U.S. dollars in 1999-2002. 20% of billion dollar sales.