How serious is the SSD shortage? Transcend has not received any NAND flash memory since October

Not only do DRAM prices continue to soar, SSD prices have also been rising for several weeks.Although the production capacity of NAND flash memory remains unchanged, the consumer market is facing a serious shortage due to the surge in demand from data centers. Storage manufacturer Transcend recently issued an internal notice to its agents, revealing the severity of the current SSD market.

The notice revealed that Transcend has not received any new NAND chips since October last year, and SanDisk and Samsung notified that delivery will be delayed again.

The specific content of the notice is as follows:

We would like to share an important update with you regarding the current availability of SSDs.

Last week, we suddenly received notices from major NAND flash memory suppliers SanDisk and Samsung that their upcoming chip deliveries were delayed again. As a result, our chip quota for the fourth quarter was significantly reduced, and we have not received any new chips since October of last year.

Currently, the DRAM (DDR4/DDR5) and NAND flash memory (for SSD, SD card, microSD card) markets are facing serious shortages. Conditions worsened in the fourth quarter as demand for large data centers and hyperscale data centers continued to grow, driven by expansion plans by major cloud service providers.

All major chipmakers are prioritizing supply to these customers, resulting in rising prices and extremely limited supply. We understand that prices have increased by 50% to 100% in the last week alone.

The price increase trend is still continuing at an extremely fast speed and with an unusual magnitude, and this situation is expected to continue for at least 3 to 5 months.

Therefore, Transcend NAND flash memory products (including but not limited to SSD, SD card, USB) will be affected in the fourth quarter, the supply cycle of orders will be extended, and the price will be much higher than in the third quarter and before.

As a major manufacturer of storage products, Transcend has not received a new NAND Flash since October, which shows that the current supply situation in the SSD market is severe. For those who are waiting for the price to drop, the chances of winning this time may not be high.