South Korean chipmakers Samsung Electronics Co. and SK Hynix Inc. together took a dominant 74.6 percent by revenue in the global DRAM market in the third quarter ended September thanks to increased shipments, a report showed.

According to a report published by market research firm DRAMeXchange on Thursday, Samsung Electronics saw a 13.6 percent on-quarter gain in revenue to $12.73 billion in the July-September period, taking up a 45.5 percent share in the global DRAM market. SK Hynix grew its revenue by 6 percent on quarter to $8.15 billion with a 29.1 percent share.

Together, the two leading Korean makers accounted for 74.6 percent of the global DRAM market in terms of revenue.

Micron, the third player in the market, also increased its revenue by 6.8 percent to $5.92 billion with a share of 21.1 percent during the cited period.

Total revenue from the global DRAM industry, meanwhile, added 9 percent to hit a new record high of $28 billion in the third quarter, the report said. The growth was largely attributable to an increase in DRAM shipments rather than rising prices, which had been “the main cause of the strong climb in the industry’s revenue” over the past two years, according to the report.

Prices almost flattened out in the third quarter and started to slide in October amid expanding market supply. It predicted prices will keep falling through the final quarter of this year and thus end the upswing that lasted for more than two years.

“The future price declines will be rather steep because the market has entered oversupply and is experiencing high inventories as well,” it said in the report.

By Kim Gyu-sik and Lee Ha-yeon

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