DRAM prices continue to rise even in the fourth quarter, traditionally the low season for chipmakers. DRAMeXchange, a Taiwan-based e-marketplace for semiconductor products, said Sunday that spot prices for 1Gb DDR3 chips recently topped US$3, up from $1.40 in May.

Until recently, only Samsung Electronics and Hynix mass-produced DDR3 DRAM, which is quicker and consumes less power than DDR2 chips. In the case of Samsung, the DDR3 chipsets amount to over half the total DRAM output.

The price of 1Gb DDR2, the staple product, also climbed to $2.78 after dropping to as low as $0.62 in December last year.

Korean DRMA makers had a combined market share of 55.1 percent in the third quarter, up two points from the previous quarter. Meanwhile, Japanese chipmakers saw their market share down 0.6 points to 18.2 percent and Taiwanese firms' remained at 14.2 percent.

Korea's chip exports rose a whopping 36 percent on-year to $3.44 billion last month, a dramatic rebound given that they plunged to a record low $1.5 billion in January after contracting for the six months.

The increase pushed up the proportion of semiconductor exports in total IT exports to 30 percent last month, with the sector reclaiming its status as the leading exporter from the cell phone and display sectors. "The memory chip market is expected to expand by 16 percent annually from this year. As demand for chips from the PC and mobile phone industries is picking up, there could be a shortage in supply," said Kwon Oh-hyun, the chief of Samsung Electronics' semiconductor business.