TAIPEI: DRAM chipmaker Nanya Technology Corp reported a 2.86 percent rebound in revenue for last month on higher shipments, indicating that chip prices are stabilizing.
Revenue rose to NT$4.08 billion (US$130.6 million) last month from NT$3.97 billion in February. Shipments rose 6.8 percent last month from February, offsetting a more than 3 percent decline in average selling prices, the Taoyuan-based chipmaker said.
GROWING DEMAND
In the first three months of the year, cumulative revenue contracted 3.06 percent to NT$12.03 billion from NT$12.41 billion in the final quarter of last year. The quarterly figure missed the company’s revenue guidance of being flat or slightly lower from the previous quarter.
“PC [demand] remains weak… but we have started seeing a pickup in the consumer electronics segment recently,” company spokesman Lee Pei-ing said by telephone.
“The second quarter is to be a better period than the first quarter, as the pace of price decline is slowing. Prices are likely to bounce back in June,” Lee said.
Nanya Technology, which generates 20 percent of its revenue from PC DRAM chips, expects this year to be a healthy period for the global DRAM industry due to limited supply growth.
CHINESE DRAM INDUSTRY
Commenting on China’s ambition to expand into the DRAM chip manufacturing sector, Lee said he was not worried about China’s participation in the industry, citing high technological barriers.
Last month, a Chinese consortium led by Summitview Capital announced its plans to acquire US IC designer Integrated Silicon Solution Inc for US$640 million, which market researcher TrendForce Co viewed as a first step by China to build its domestic DRAM industry.
Recently, six Chinese cities including Beijing were vying for the central government’s financial support to build DRAM factories, TrendForce said in a report last month.
Considering China’s aggressiveness in building its own homegrown semiconductor industry, TrendForce said China is expected to flex its economic muscle in the global DRAM market within three years at the earliest.
INOTERA
Inotera Memories Inc, a joint venture between Nanya and US memorychip maker Micron Technology Inc, on Friday posted its weakest monthly revenue in 20 months for last month.
Revenue fell 5.61 percent to NT$5.55 billion last month, compared with NT$5.88 billion in February and a 20.53 percent decline from a year earlier.
Inotera attributed the decline to production reduction, as it was upgrading to 20-nanometer technology. The company plans to ramp up production of 20-nanometer chips this quarter and aims to convert 80 percent of its capacity to 20-nanometer chips from the 30-nanometer process.
The company’s total revenue in the first quarter contracted by 12 percent to NT$18.13 billion from the previous quarter and dropped 10.34 percent from the previous year.
