NAND flash memory contract prices are expected to stay flat or drop by up to 5% in the fourth quarter of 2021, according to TrendForce.

Shipments for consumer electronics devices, such as smartphones, Chromebooks and TVs have been lower-than-expected thus far in the second half of this year, while demand remains sluggish for retail storage products including memory cards and USB drives, said TrendForce. On the contrary, demand for data centers and enterprise servers has been relatively strong.

"With the inventory level of the demand side steadily rising, the procurement momentum of NAND flash buyers will become more constrained going forward," TrendForce noted. "The gradual weakening of demand is also relieving the shortage of NAND flash controller ICs."

Contract prices for client SSDs are likely to fall 3-8% in the fourth quarter of 2021, while prices for enterprise SSDs will stay flat or grow by up to 5% thanks mainly to supply-side constraints, according to DRAMeXchange.

In addition, with China's YMTC and others joining in the race for over-100-layer offerings, chip suppliers will be able to lower their prices based on improvement in their cost structure. As a result, prices for 3D NAND wafers will fall 10-15% in the fourth quarter of 2021 showing the largest price decrease among all product categories, DRAMeXchange said.