Prices of computer memory chips are expected to pick up moderately in the final quarter of the year boosted by seasonal demand for computers, Taipei-based market watcher DRAMeXchange said in its latest report.
"But the upward strength would be weaker as demand bit growth should lack behind supply bit growth by 4.4 percentage points in the fourth quarter," said Judy Chen, an official of Marketing Intelligence Team under DRAMeXchange, in the report released on Wednesday night.
The rebound in chip prices would first be driven by back-to-school demand this month.
The market watcher projected that first-tier local motherboard makers will report a quarter-on-quarter 8 percent shipment growth this month and the top six notebook contract makers should also see a 9 percent growth in shipments.
Chen did not give details about the price rise. The positive outlook, which is in line with most industrial players' forecasts, would be a relief for most memory chip makers.
Powerchip Semiconductor Corp (
The DRAM prices slid to below the average production cost of US$2.6 in the April to June quarter, DRAMeXchange said. Industrial laggards already started to feel the pinch of a price plunge in the first half of this year, it said.
But Powerchip had its stock recommendation reduced by UBS AG to "neutral 2" from "buy 2," which cited concerns about an oversupply of computer-memory chips and falling prices.
UBS also lowered its rating on Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技) to "reduce 2" from "buy 2," analysts Jonathan Dutton, Kang-Ho Chong, Christian Dinwoodie and William Dong wrote in a report published on Wednesday.
Contract prices of so-called dynamic random access memory chips may reach a peak of US$2.75 in the first half of this month and fall from that level, UBS forecast. "Continued high oil prices" may also sap global demand for semiconductors, the brokerage said.
"As we approach the seasonal peak for DRAM demand, we believe the risk/reward for DRAM stocks is set to deteriorate over the next three to six months," the UBS analysts said in the report.
Shares of Powerchip Semiconductor fell NT$0.1, or 0.5 percent, to NT$20.1 while those of Nanya Technology was down NT$0.1, or 0.5 percent, to NT$20.2 on the Taiwan Stock Exchange on Wednesday. The stock market was closed yesterday because of Typhoon Talim.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained