Macronix looking for orders from cellphone makers

Macronix International Co (旺宏電子), which sells half its chips to Nintendo Co, said it expects to win orders from mobile-phone makers for cheaper memory chips, helping reduce its dependence on the Japanese maker of video-game consoles.

Taiwan's biggest maker of memory chips used in electronic games said it pared by two-thirds the cost of making flash-memory chips that retain memory until it is upgraded.

"We started selling the chips this month," C.Y. Lu, chief technical officer at Macronix, said. Makers of hand-held computers and office automation equipment are buying the chips, he said.

Macronix expects to win new cellphone customers as it installs more equipment in its third plant that's capable of making the low-cost chips. The company slowed installing equipment after demand for consumer electronics slumped, prompting Macronix to change its profit forecast for this year to a loss, Lu said.

About a quarter of Macronix's sales come from flash chips.

Ten percent of the company's flash chips are made with 0.15 micron technology that it started using to compete with rivals such as Samsung Electronics Co. Macronix's most advanced flash chips were made with 0.4 micron technology in the first half.

Sales at Macronix, which has had three straight quarterly loss-es, slumped after Nintendo introduced the GameCube, anal-ysts said, because the console uses fewer chips.

In July Macronix revised its full-year forecast to a net loss of NT$9.6 billion (US$275.8 million) from a profit of NT$927 million, citing a slower-than-expected recovery in demand and an inventory writedown.