Q2 a disaster for most DRAM makers

The second quarter of the year is a slow season and great things aren’t generally expected to happen here in terms of financials and product shipments. However, it appears that DRAM manufacturers had an especially rough quarter with overall revenues declining by 24% sequentially, according to iSuppli.

“How bad were conditions in the DRAM market in the second quarter?” writes the market research firm in its press release. Read a few lines further and you get the impression that was about as bad as it can get.

While unit shipments gained 23% from Q1 of this year, global revenues dropped by 24%. Among the ten largest DRAM makers, especially Nanya, Powerchip and Promos suffered steep revenue declines of up to 43%. Etron, ranked #9 on the list, was the only company that was able to grow its revenue sequentially; on an annual basis, Hynix (#2, +29%), Elpida (#4, +16%),Etron (#9, +65%) and Winbond (#10, +6%) increased their revenues.

Samsung continues to lead the ranking and expand its market presence. The company increased its revenue share to 28% and unit share to 24%. iSuppli estimates that Samsung shipped the equivalent of 619 million 512 Mb chips, more than twice as many chips as in Q2 2006 (302 million). Revenues, however, were 3% year over year.

Hynix took the position as second largest DRAM supplier from Qimonda, increased its DRAM shipments from 217 million to 575 million 512 Mb chips and revenues from $1.17 billion to $1.52 billion. Qimonda’s shipment climbed from 217 million to 336 million units, while revenues fell from $1.2 billion to $990 million in the same time frame.