Nanya Technology Corp (
The four Taiwan companies, which account for a fifth of the US$16 billion global memory-chip market, will petition the island's government in three weeks to impose duties, Nanya Vice President Charles Kau (
The chipmakers' action follows a US plan to impose 57 percent tariffs on imports from Korea's Hynix Semiconductor Inc.
Nanya said that Hynix has been selling more chips in Taiwan following steps in the US and Europe to impose duties on imports from the South Korean company.
"If Hynix can't enter US and European markets, it will dump chips in Asia," said Kevin Yang, who counts shares of Taiwan memory chipmakers among the NT$110 billion (US$3.2 billion) he helps manage for International Investment Trust Co (
The US Commerce Department made a preliminary decision April 1 that loans and guarantees to Hynix from South Korean government-backed lenders unfairly allowed it to undercut rivals.
Germany's Infineon Technologies AG, the world's fourth-largest memory chipmaker, has filed a similar complaint to the EU against Hynix, citing financial assistance given to save the chipmaker. Hynix's creditors have rolled over billions of dollars of debt the chip manufacturer accumulated to invest in new production equipment.
Spot prices of so-called 256Mb double-data rate memory chips, Nanya's main product, have fallen 9 percent to US$3.36 since April 8, according to Dramexchange.com, an online marketplace for memory chips that's based in Taiwan.
On April 7, South Korea's Ministry of Commerce offered to cut the number of chips the nation exports to the US if it suspends plans for the tariff.
"It's in the Taiwanese companies' interest to take this action following the US and European moves," said Frank Wang, an analyst with Credit Suisse First Boston. It may take six months before the Taiwan government takes any action against South Korean imports, he said.
"We will ask the government to levy countervailing duties on South Korean companies for unfair subsidies," said Kau, who said Hynix has been kept alive by government-engineered bailouts.
"We're competing with the South Korean government."
Taiwan companies that will sign the petition include Mosel Vitelic Inc (茂矽電子), Powerchip Semiconductor Corp (力晶半導體) and Winbond Electronics Corp (華邦電子), Kau said. The plan was reported earlier in a local newspaper.
``We will endorse the petition,'' said Eric Tang (譚仲民), a Powerchip vice president. Winbond can't confirm whether it will sign, company spokesman Mike Liu (劉重光) said. Thomas Chang (張東隆), a Mosel vice president, wasn't available for comment.
The Taiwan companies supply chips to local PC makers, who make more than half of the world's personal computers for sellers such as Hewlett-Packard Co and Dell Computer Corp. They also sell directly to companies such as Dell.
South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co and Nanya were the only companies to make a profit last year in the memory-chip business.
Nanya turned to a loss in the first quarter this year of NT$927 million (US$26.7 million).
The Taiwan companies are having difficulty raising funds for expansion, while Hynix and Samsung have continued to invest in new facilities with the aid of the government, the newspaper said.
Nanya, which is building a chip plant with Infineon, plans to sell NT$400 million of new shares overseas to help finance a 40 percent increase in spending this year.
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