Prices for memory chips used in smartphones and personal computers surged as SK Hynix Inc. suspended operations in China after a factory fire.
The blaze occurred Sept. 4 during the installation of equipment at a factory in Wuxi, China, manufacturing dynamic random-access memory chips for SK Hynix. The fire burned for about 90 minutes before being extinguished, the company said.
The price of the benchmark DDR3 2-gigabit DRAM jumped 30 cents, the biggest increase since September 2010, to $1.90 yesterday, according to DRAMeXchange, Asia's largest market for the components. SK Hynix makes almost one-third of the world's DRAM chips.
Typically, it might take more than half a year before SK Hynix?s damaged clean room is fully rebuilt. SK Hynix said it is currently evaluating the extent of damage and that key production equipment was not damaged.
SK Hynix held a 30 percent share of the global DRAM market in the second quarter, following Samsung Electronics's 32.7 percent, TrendForce said Aug. 8.
The Korean company's customers include Apple, Lenovo, Dell and Sony.