We’ve talked about it multiple times, but over the course of the past couple of years the prices for both DRAM and NAND have gone up tremendously. There has been increased demand for these products, but it seems manufacturers were not planning on increasing production to meet the supply demand. This combined with the price increase for these products has caught the attention of China’s National Development and Reform Commission’s Pricing Supervision Department (NDRC), who said they are aware of the situation, how it could point towards price-fixing from the four major NAND production players (Samsung, Hynix, Micron and Toshiba), and are looking into the matter. “We have noticed the price surge and will pay more attention to future problems that may be caused by ‘price fixing’ in the sector,” the official Xu Xinyu was quoted as saying in an interview to Chinese newspaper Daily China.
It has been reported that Samsung has already been approached by Chinese officials regarding this issue, but it seems both Samsung and SK Hynix have declined to comment on the matter.
