Price rises fail to boost outlook for memory chips

Powerchip Semiconductor Corp (力晶半導體), the nation's third-largest maker of computer-memory chips, fell NT$0.25, or 2.5 percent, to NT$9.90 on news that its March sales fell 21.5 percent from a year ago.

"The global DRAM output of 2002 has grown 30 percent against year 2001, but the market supply is still over demand," Powerchip spokesperson Eric Tang (譚仲民) said in a statement.

Winbond Electronics Corp (華邦電子), the nation's fifth-largest memory-chip maker, said March sales dropped about 25 percent from a year ago to NT$2.2 billion (US$63.2 million). Sales were NT$3 billion in March last year, the company said in a faxed statement.

Winbond closed at NT$13.95 yesterday, down NT$0.45, or 3.1 percent.

A Chinese-language media report yesterday speculated that Powerchip's loss for the first quarter of this year would exceed NT$1 billion.

Rivals ProMos Technologies Inc (茂德科技) and Winbond are expected to report first-quarter losses below NT$1 billion, the report said.

The recent DDR DRAM price increase may be only temporary, adding to the makers' woes.

"It's a gloomy outlook for the rest of the year," Hsu said.