Nanya Technology Corp (南亞 科技), the nation's largest maker of computer-memory chips, said last month's sales fell 30 percent after Intel Corp delayed introduction of new chips that work with its fastest products, dampening demand.
Sales dropped to NT$1.6 billion (US$46.1 million) from NT$2.3 billion in April a year ago and NT$1.9 billion in March this year.
Demand has been poorer than expected because of the delay by Intel, the world's biggest chipmaker, Nanya said in a statement.
The spot price of Nanya's main product has fallen by two-thirds since November and the outlook for demand isn't improving.
Corporate spending on computers -- the main users of memory chips -- and software hasn't increased since the end of the war in Iraq and isn't likely to until next year at the earliest, Goldman, Sachs & Co said in a note to clients.
Nanya had a NT$927 million loss in the first quarter after the spot price of 256-megabit, double-data rate memory chips fell from $8.88 on Nov. 4 to $3.15 as of Thursday.
The company and South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co, were the only of 10 suppliers in the US$16 billion global market to make profits last year. Nanya has forecast net income this year will fall by more than a third to NT$1.5 billion.
Information-technology man-agers surveyed last month said their budgets would shrink by an average of 3.2 percent from last year, according to Goldman analysts Laura Conigliaro and Rick Sherlund. The same survey group in February projected a 1 percent rise this year.
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