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Memory prices have surged across the supply chain this week, with SSDs, memory modules, and DDR4 chips all experiencing significant price increases. At the same time, new uncertainty is emerging on the supply side as Samsung employees in South Korea are preparing for a potential large-scale strike, adding further pressure to an already tight memory supply market.
According to the latest data from Flash Market, DDR4 16Gb ETT prices have increased by approximately 15%, while 8Gb ETT prices have risen by around 9%. As chip prices climb, module prices are following the same trend.
Prices for DDR4 UDIMM modules — including 8GB, 16GB, and 32GB — have generally increased by more than 20%, with some products approaching price increases of nearly 30%.
SSD prices in the channel market are also rising rapidly, with some models seeing price increases of up to 20%.
Earlier market rumors suggested that memory prices might experience a short-term correction. However, current channel quotations indicate that purchasing demand is strengthening again. Notably, memory module prices are increasing faster than DRAM chip prices, which typically signals real demand recovery rather than speculative price movements.
On the supply side, a potential large-scale strike by Samsung employees could become the most significant uncertainty for the memory market.
Following the breakdown of labor negotiations between Samsung and its workers, South Korea’s National Labor Relations Commission has officially ended mediation, granting the union the legal right to strike. The union represents approximately 89,000 employees, accounting for more than 60% of Samsung’s total workforce.
The union has announced a company-wide strike vote running until March 18.
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If the vote passes, the union plans to hold a large rally on April 23, followed by a nationwide strike lasting 18 days from May 21 to June 7.
The core dispute revolves around the fairness of Samsung’s performance bonus system (OPI). The union is demanding the removal of the current cap that limits OPI bonuses to 50% of annual salary and is calling for operating profit to replace Economic Value Added (EVA) as the calculation benchmark.
So far, the two sides have failed to reach an agreement.
Samsung plays a crucial role in the global memory industry. In the fourth quarter of 2025, Samsung held approximately 36.6% of the global DRAM market and nearly 40% of the NAND market. Any large-scale labor disruption could therefore have significant ripple effects across the global semiconductor supply chain.
Meanwhile, the three major memory manufacturers are expanding investment in new production capacity. Micron has committed roughly $200 billion to expand semiconductor manufacturing in the United States, while SK Hynix and Samsung are also increasing capital expenditures.
However, building advanced semiconductor fabs and cleanroom facilities requires years of construction, meaning new supply will remain limited in the near term.
Micron forecasts that global DRAM and NAND shipments could grow by around 20% in 2026, yet demand is still expected to exceed supply.
Industry capacity structures are unlikely to shift significantly until mid-2027. At that time, Micron’s $50 billion Idaho fabrication facility is expected to begin wafer production. SK Hynix’s Yongin semiconductor cluster is projected to enter mass production by the end of 2027, while Micron’s New York mega-fab project will follow around 2028.
Overall, the market widely expects tight memory supply conditions to persist for at least 12 to 18 months.
Although the NAND market includes additional suppliers such as SanDisk and Kioxia, making the competitive structure more diversified, overall production capacity is still expected to remain constrained until at least mid-2027.
