Samsung strike risk could disrupt DRAM, NAND and HBM supply

Samsung is reportedly reducing factory activity as a planned 18-day strike approaches. The report says more than 43,000 workers in Samsung's semiconductor division have joined the labor action, creating a staffing issue for fabs that normally run continuously. The memory impact is material because TrendForce is cited as estimating possible disruption of roughly 3% to 4% of global DRAM supply and about 3% of NAND Flash supply. The affected lines are described as including HBM, LPDDR5 and DDR5-related production, alongside some custom logic. For RamTrend, this is a clear upside risk for memory prices. If the disruption persists, buyers may try to shift orders toward SK hynix or Micron, but spare capacity in advanced memory is limited. The highest sensitivity is in HBM and DDR5, where demand is already tight from AI servers and newer client platforms.