NAND flash is used mainly as memory in digital cameras and mobile phones, and its main Korean manufacturers include Samsung Electronics and Hynix Semiconductor.

DRAMeXchange, a Taiwan-based e-marketplace for semiconductor products, on Sunday said that the contract price of 8Gb multi-level cell NAND flash rose by about 6.8 percent from US$2.76 to $2.95. The price of this product had been falling for more than eight months since last August when it sold for $9.02.

The price of 16Gb multi-level cell NAND flash, the key product of Samsung Electronics and Toshiba, rose by 5.9 percent from $5.40 to $5.72, the first price increase in eight months.

Some observers speculated that the chip prices improved because Hynix, a major NAND flash memory chip maker, has reduced its supply after it sold some old facilities and replaced other aging facilities with new ones.

But Hynix president Kim Jong-kap said that memory chip prices finally bottomed out in February. He said the market is stabilizing and prices should continue to rise.

(englishnews@chosun.com )