Powerchip Semiconductor Corp (力晶半導體), the nation’s biggest computer memory chipmaker, yesterday said sales last month nearly halved from a year ago because of a persistent drop in price and a significant decrease in shipments.
It expects price to rebound, however, in the second quarter of next year as oversupply may ease following more output cuts.
Sales fell 45.41 percent to NT$2.6 billion (US$79.2 million) last month, hitting a five-year low, compared to NT$4.77 billion in the same period last year, a company statement said.
To stem losses and more cash outflow after chip prices fell to below costs, Powerchip said it would stick to its plan of slashing production by another 10 percent to 15 percent in the fourth quarter from the third quarter, a company statement said.
As part of the plan, “Powerchip will [shut down plants] for equipment maintenance this month earlier than schedule,” company spokesman Eric Tan (譚仲民) said by telephone.
EARLY
The equipment maintenance program will come four months earlier than scheduled as Powerchip usually shuts down factories for two or three days for equipment checks during the Lunar New Year holidays, which most often falls in February.
“This time, the period will probably take longer. We may spend five days, or seven days for equipment checks,” Tan said.
As more chipmakers, including Japan’s Elpida Memory Inc, joined Powerchip in cutting output, Powerchip said customers’ inventories would fall significantly in the first quarter and that may pave the way for a price rebound in the second quarter.
The price for benchmark computer memory chips has plunged about 43 percent to US$1.01 per unit yesterday from early this year, Taipei-based market researcher DRAMeXchange Technology Inc (集邦科技) said.
On Wednesday, peers Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技) and Inotera Memories Inc (華亞科技) reported 12 percent and 18 percent annual declines for sales last month to NT$3.24 billion and NT$3.22 billion, respectively.
CAPITAL TIE-UP
Separately, Elpida, Japan’s largest maker of computer-memory chips, may make its Rexchip Electronics Corp (瑞晶) venture with Powerchip a subsidiary, though no offer has yet been made, the company said yesterday in Tokyo. The Japanese firm is considering a capital tie-up with Powerchip next year to bolster the alliance, Elpida said in a statement.
Elpida said it also delayed the startup of its venture in China and cut capital spending this year after a glut led to four straight quarterly losses.
Operations at the chip-making venture with Suzhou Venture Group Co in eastern China will begin about a year after the initial schedule of early 2010, Elpida said in the statement.
Capital spending for the 12 months ending March 31 will be cut by as much as 10 percent from a planned ¥100 billion (US$1.02 billion), Elpida said.
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