Jun-beom Jeong, Gounee Yang Global Economic News SOUTH KOREA’S Samsung Electronics’ global NAND flash market share slightly increased in the first quarter of this year from the fourth quarter last year, while SK Hynix’s decreased in the period. According to data released by Taiwan-based market intelligence provider TrendForce, global NAND flash sales in the first quarter fell 3% from the previous quarter to US$17.92 billion. The total NAND flash bit shipments increased 9% from the previous quarter, but average sale price decreased 2%. Samsung, the world’s biggest NAND flash maker, posted US$6.32 billion in sales in the first quarter, up 3.4% from a quarter ago. Samsung’s market share was 35.3%, up from 2.2% a quarter ago, followed by Japan’s Kioxia with 18.9%. Combined NAND flash sales of SK Hynix and its subsidiary Solidigm were US$3.225 billion, down 10.7% from the previous quarter. Their market shares also fell 1.5% to 18%. TrendForce said that first-quarter shipments by SK Hynix, which has strengths in NAND for mobiles, decreased mainly due to falling demand for smartphones on the Chinese mainland. Global NAND flash sales fell in the first quarter as demand for smartphones weakened due to market impacts of the Ukraine war and off-season, TrendForce said. TrendForce said that demand may continue to decrease due to the war in Ukraine, inflation and China’s lockdown measures. | 