Flash memory price increases due to shortage in production
In the last few weeks there have been massive increases in the cost of flash memory.
This continues to affect the prices of USB's on a global scale. It has largely affected small chip products in the 1GB and 2GB range but is across the board to some extent.
The increase in prices is due to large purchases of flash memory by consumer companies (typically new phone and tablet production). This has resulted in a shortage of smaller capacity chips which is forecast to continue for sometime.
Quotes for the forseeable future will be on a weekly basis until the supply issues are resolved.