South Korean customs data reveals monthly surge in storage prices: SSDs soar by 63%, HBM rises by 19%

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The latest customs import and export data from South Korea shows that DRAM and NAND flash memory prices have experienced sharp jumps within a single month, reflecting a structural supply-demand imbalance in the global storage market driven by AI demand.

Among them, NAND flash product prices surged 63.1% month-on-month, HBM memory prices rose 18.7% month-on-month, and bare DRAM chip prices also increased by more than 20% month-on-month. The above data covers the period from April to May 10, 2026; compared to the same period last year, major categories saw price increases ranging from 165% to 500%.

Major manufacturers such as Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron are accelerating production expansion. However, Samsung pointed out that the supply-demand tension in the storage market in 2027 may further intensify compared to 2026, as it takes at least two to three years for new wafer fabs to go from breaking ground to mass production, so substantive relief on the supply side is difficult in the short term.

DRAM and HBM: AI super cycle driving surge in demand

According to South Korean customs data, bare DRAM chips (excluding memory modules) saw prices increase 20.9% month-on-month from April to May 10, with year-on-year growth close to 500%. This year-on-year figure intuitively shows the deep pull of AI computing expansion on DRAM demand.

HBM, as a core component of AI servers, saw its price rise 18.7% month-on-month and 165.5% year-on-year. HBM is currently the key memory solution for AI chip platforms such as NVIDIA, and its price trends directly affect downstream data center construction costs.

Memory products based on DRAM modules (covering UDIMM, SODIMM, RDIMM specifications under the DDR5 standard, as well as standard DDR and LPDDR formats) showed a slight decrease of 13.9% month-on-month, but overall memory products still saw a combined month-on-month increase of 28.8% and a year-on-year increase of 326.3%.

NAND flash leads single month price increases; quarterly increase may reach 75%

NAND flash is the most prominent category in this round of price increases. Data shows that NAND flash product prices rose 63.1% month-on-month and 351.6% year-on-year.

Market research agency TrendForce pointed out that enterprise-level contract price increases are particularly notable: SSD contract prices based on MLC chips rose about 50%, while SLC chip-based SSD contract prices increased about 20%. The industry's focus has clearly shifted to AI-oriented storage products, with Micron, Samsung, SK Hynix, Kioxia and other manufacturers all accelerating their layout in this segment.

According to current trends, TrendForce expects NAND prices to cumulatively rise by 70% to 75% in this quarter.

Consumer-grade SSD shows divergence: weak PC demand drives spot prices down

Despite continued price increases for enterprise and AI-related storage products, the consumer end has diverged sharply. TrendForce data shows that spot prices for TLC chip-based SSDs targeting the consumer market have already fallen by 30% to 40%.

This downward pressure is due to significantly weakened demand in the PC market. The high price environment suppresses consumer willingness to purchase, resulting in inventory buildup of general consumer-grade SSDs and subsequently a drop in spot prices.

As a result, the pricing trends in the enterprise and consumer storage markets have gone in completely opposite directions, and the structural divergence in supply and demand is accelerating the reshaping of profit distribution across the entire NAND industry chain.

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