A major DRAM & NAND crisis is impending as Samsung faces an 18-day strike in May, which could disrupt the global supply chain.
DRAM & NAND Output Will See Up To 4% Disruption In May As Samsung Faces 18-Day Strike
DRAM & NAND production is already facing supply constraints, and to make matters worse, Samsung union workers are expected to go on an 18-day strike as the company is unwilling to meet the salary-related demands.
As per reports, Samsung's union workers are asking the company for bonuses, demanding a 15% of Samsung's annual operating profit, which amounts to around $30 billion. If the company fails to meet demands, the workers are planning an 18-day strike between 21st May and 7th June.
It is projected that if the Samsung Electronics (005930) labor union proceeds with an 18-day general strike as announced, the supply of memory semiconductors will decrease by up to 4%. This is because it will take about 2 to 3 weeks to normalize production even after the general strike.
If these strikes take place, Samsung is expected to see a 3-4% output disruption in the DRAM and a 2-3% output disruption in the NAND segments. Current estimates put the total losses from the strike around 20-30 trillion won, roughly 13-20 billion in USD. Furthermore, this strike would risk a 36-day production blackout.
Trendforce estimates that the post-strike recovery will take at least 2-3 weeks, which involves a cleanroom reset, tool recalibration, wafer scrap, yield ramp-up, and more. The strikes mark a deepening crisis for the AI segment, which is already facing severe DRAM/NAND constraints. Samsung and other semiconductor firms are racing to expand their existing and new facilities; however, this takes time, and they will only be able to meet 70% of the current demand, as reported earlier.
The direct benefit of Samsung's strike would go to its competitors, SK Hynix and Micron, who can raise the prices of DRAM/NAND products. While 2-4% might seem like a small percentile value, in the current crisis, even a 1% disruption can lead to a major supply chain disruption. For general audiences, this strike will lead to higher prices for already expensive components and will take a good amount of time to normalize.
About the author: A Software Engineer by training and a PC enthusiast by passion, Hassan Mujtaba serves as Wccftech's Senior Editor for hardware section. With years of experience in the industry, he specializes in deep-dive technical analysis of next-generation CPU and GPU architectures, motherboards, and cooling solutions. His work involves not only breaking news on upcoming technologies but also extensive hands-on reviews and benchmarking.
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