Samsung's share in SSD market to jump in Q3, backed by increasing chip prices

Samsung Electronics is expected to enjoy price increases of solid-state drives in the forthcoming months, due to robust demand from data center providers, market data showed Friday.

According to the latest report from Taiwan-based market researcher TrendForce, contract prices of enterprise SSDs for the third quarter this year are expected to jump 10-15 percent on-quarter.

The report attributed the price hike to the cloud service providers in the North American region that have recently been observed to expand their storage capacities. The increase in the production of computer processors by companies such as Intel and Advanced Micro Devices will also add on to the demand for SSD products.

Benefiting most from the demand surge, Samsung Electronics products are projected to account for over 50 percent of SSDs purchased by data centers in North America from July to September.

The report also saw the Korean tech giant as capable of handling the soaring demand, citing the company’s relatively high share of in-house components -- in contrast with Intel’s NAND business unit that recently suffered from a shortage of power management integrated circuits for SSD production.

Samsung will likely maintain its strong lead in the market, as other SSD providers such as Kioxia and SK hynix are unlikely to catch up in the near future, the report added.

Meanwhile, in terms of SSD contract prices, the market researcher predicted a 3-8 percent on-quarter increase during the July-September period, backed by strong demand for laptop computers.

By Shim Woo-hyun (ws@heraldcorp.com)