‘The electronics industry will enter 1973 faced with severe shortages of many kinds of semiconductor devices, and with only limited prospects of an easier situation during the coming 12 months’, starts a story in Electronics Weekly’s edition of December 27th 1972.
'The gap between supply and demand, which has become a matter of increasing concern in industry circles during the last few weeks,’ continued the story, ‘was amply confirmed by EW in a survey of semiconductor manufacturers and buyers just before Christmas.’
‘In fact, one buyer went so far as to say that, in his opinion, it seemed as though the present delinquency has been deliberately induced by the suppliers to bring prices back to a ‘sensible level’, says the 1972 EW report, ‘as a result, some of the more widely used devices require order lead times of up to three months’.
35 years later, yesterday - December 11th 2007 - it was reported by DRAMexchange: "“From the market perspective, when prices fall below the variable cost, it becomes highly possible for major DRAM manufacturers to reduce their production volume in spurring prices to rise. Samsung and Hynix in combination own nearly 50% of the global DRAM market, once they or other DRAM makers decide to reduce production, we will then see a chance for DRAM market to reach a balance between supply and demand next year, and potentially a rise in DRAM chip price instead.”
Some things don't change
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