Macronix is also branching out into the world of logic. In early October, they reported that they had secured a huge, long-term order of US$2 billion from Nintendo to supply custom designed application specific IC (ASIC) chipsets. The ASIC chipsets will be used mainly in Nintendo's DVD players. Macronix said the company is also negotiating for renewed orders with other leading Japanese companies like NEC, Sony and Toshiba.
"About 60 percent of Macronix sales are to Nintendo," said a secu-rities analyst. "They also are doing foundry for Mitsubishi and VLSI."
In order to meet the growing demand, Macronix has filed an application to float US$43.5 million worth of new shares to raise new funds at a premium of US$0.19 per share. The company will also issue global depository receipts (GDRs) worth US$55 million to boost the output of silicon wafers at its No. 2 plant.
Company executives said the Sept. 21 earthquake in Taiwan and the subsequent power supply blackout had forced a suspension of production operations for 10 days and caused a direct loss of about US$10 million.
But Macronix will not incur an actual loss since it will be compensated by insurance coverage. The company said full manufacturing operations had been resumed as of Oct. 1. It expects sales revenue for October may exceed the original projection of US$64 million because of the continuous surge in semiconductor prices. Winbond also has recovered from the earthquake. In fact, one of its fabs never actually went off line.
Though Winbond and Macronix (along with Taiwan's other fabs) have recovered from the quake, whether their sticking to their IDM strategy can pay off in the long run remains to be seen. Before the quake, TSMC and UMC were already turning away business as the demand for foundry services has soared this year. Even with the lost production due to the quake, TSMC was able to increase its sales in the third quarter by 75 percent on a year-on-year basis.
Al Kramer is a freelance writer based in Hsinchu.
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