Five years ago: EC rule sends RAM prices up 30 per cent

First published 26 March, 1997

"We're seeing price rises of between 25 per cent and 30 per cent," said Ian Boyle, group director of UK memory distributor Datrontech. "Unless you can prove the RAM was manufactured outside Korea or Japan, or prove the goods were sold above the EC's reference price, there is a tariff."

Boyle said he was unconvinced that dumping was going on. "I'm not sure anybody was dumping. If it was true that the Korean government had told makers to cut production then it worked; production was down by 20-30 per cent."

However, Boyle said he didn't expect prices to spiral in the way that they have on several occasions in the last two years: "Prices will stabilise because of market forces. We expect a rise just after Easter and then a plateau."