The international market price of 128MB DRAM chips has plunged to $14 from more than $40 earlier this year at the same time as a recovery in demand for 64MB chips has pushed the price up to around $7, according to Korean manufacturers. They say this has created bit cross situation where it is becoming more economical for PC makers to use the larger capacity memory chips, which should lead to a surge in demand for 128MB chips, which in turn could lead to a supply shortage in the fourth quarter of the year. Analysts predict the 128MB memory chip market, which has been dominated so far by Samsung Electronics Co, Hyundai Electronics Industries Co and NEC Corp, will grow to 1 billion units in 2001 from 170 million units this year.
