That's one way to cut memory oversupply.

Memory maker Hynix suffered a 15 hour power outage at its Wuxi fab in China, halting DRAM production and ruining all of the memory wafers under production. The memory manufacturing process cannot be interrupted, so if it's not finished, the whole wafer becomes scrap.

The outage, contrary to some reports, was not related to the horrible earthquakes that have killed so many in central China. According to Reuters, this particular plant manufactures roughly half of Hynix's total DRAM output, which will translate into up to $18 million in lost sales.

The plant is back up and running so it's not going to translate into a huge disruption in supply. If anything, it will cause a few days of lost supply, and Hynix is only one vendor. Some financial analysts think there may be a price spike this month or next, but it won't last. Last year, Samsung suffered a fire at one of its biggest plants, resulting in a few days of down time. Prices barely moved, and Samsung is the largest memory maker in the world.