While maintaining its position as the world's top D램 market player, SK hynix has been narrowing the gap with Samsung Electronics due to an increase in shipments of fifth-generation high-bandwidth memory (HBM3E).
According to market research firm TrendForce on the 27th, the global D램 industry's revenue in the fourth quarter of last year amounted to $28 billion (40.37 trillion won), representing a 9.9% increase compared to the previous quarter.
Samsung Electronics recorded revenue of $11.25 billion (approximately 16.22 trillion won), an increase of 5.1% compared to the previous quarter, maintaining its position as the number one D램 supplier. However, its market share slightly declined from 41.1% in the third quarter to 39.3% in the fourth quarter. Samsung Electronics noted that D램 shipments decreased due to inventory impacts in PCs and smartphones, and that HBM shipments only began to ramp up at the end of last year.
SK hynix achieved revenue of $10.46 billion (approximately 15.83 trillion won), reflecting a 16.9% growth compared to the previous quarter, thanks to increased shipments of HBM3E. Its market share rose from 34.4% to 36.6%, further narrowing the gap with Samsung Electronics.
Micron, ranked third, reported revenue of $6.4 billion (approximately 9.23 trillion won) and captured a market share of 22.4%.
TrendForce predicted on the first quarter of this year that it would be a 'traditional off-season', noting that 'as demand from cloud service providers (CSP) weakens, D램 prices are expected to decline.'