Powerchip Semiconductor Corp (力晶半導體), the nation’s biggest manufacturer of computer memory chips, expects chip prices to rebound in June from almost a year-long overcapacity-driven slump as customer inventories fall, a company executive said yesterday.
Powerchip’s comments came in the wake of comments by its bigger rivals, including Japan’s top memory chipmaker Elpida Memory Inc and South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co, of their intention to raise prices this month.
“We hope an uptick in contract prices will somehow help boost spot prices in April,” Powerchip president Brian Shieh (謝再居) told reporters on the sidelines of a groundbreaking ceremony for two new advanced 12-inch (300mm) plants in Hsinchu.
Shieh remained cautious, however, saying: “There is a better opportunity for prices to rise in the second half, probably in June, as [inventories] should fall [to a normal level] after a six-to-nine-month digestion.”
If not, most dynamic random access memory (DRAM) makers might not be able to survive this downturn, Shieh said.
Powerchip sells a major portion of its computer memory chips, specifically DRAM chips, on the spot market rather than to computer vendors, who buy DRAM chips from suppliers on contract basis via negotiations twice a month.
Taipei-based market researcher DRAMeXchange Technology Inc (集邦科技) said yesterday that DRAM spot prices had hit the bottom and might rebound gradually in the next few months as prices had approached or even dropped below cost over the past year, putting most suppliers under heavy financial pressure.
Next year might be a better period for DRAM makers in light of slower capacity expansion, estimated at a healthy 50 percent annual pace, Shieh said.
Powerchip aims to increase capacity by 55 percent to 60 percent year-on-year next year, mainly from Rexchip Electronics Co (瑞晶), a DRAM venture with Elpida, compared with a 65 percent expansion this year, Shieh said.
To meet future demand, the company plans to spend NT$250 billion (US$7.8billion) to build two new 12-inch plants in Hsinchu, with a combined capacity of 120,000 wafers a month.
The plants are scheduled to ramp up production in the fourth quarter of next year with an initial output of 20,000 to 30,000 wafers per month. Powerchip plans to make DRAM chips and NAND flash products at the factories using next-generation 50-nanometer technology.
Powerchip currently operates three 12-inch plants after spinning off a less advanced 8-inch (200mm) plant to form a liquid-crystal-display (LCD) driver IC venture, Maxchip Semiconductor Corp (鉅晶電子), with Japan’s Renesas Technology Corp and Sharp Corp.
Shares of Powerchip declined 2.2 percent to NT$11.35, while rival Nanya Technology Inc’s (南亞科技) fell 2.4 percent to NT$18.35, underperforming the TAIEX, which slid 0.65 percent yesterday.
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