Computer memory chipmaker Winbond Electronics Corp (華邦電子) said yesterday it expected operations to improve in the July-to-September period amid rising demand for mobile random access memory (RAM) products.
The Hsinchu-based company said efforts to speed up its migration to 90-nanometer technology to decrease cost would also give its business a lift, it said in a statement.
“By the end of the third quarter, 90nm production will account for approximately 25 percent of shipment and 100 percent in the middle of 2010,” Winbond said.
The company released the third-quarter guidance after reporting a net loss of NT$2.75 billion (US$84 million), or NT$0.76 per share, in the second quarter.
The second-quarter loss, its ninth consecutive quarterly loss since the second quarter of 2007, represented an improvement from its first-quarter loss of NT$5.22 billion. On an annual basis, however, it was still bigger than a loss of NT$1.28 billion in the same period last year, company data showed.
Second-quarter revenue totaled NT$4.2 billion, up 34 percent from NT$3.13 billion in the previous quarter, but down 34.6 percent from NT$6.42 billion a year ago.
Winbond produces specialty dynamic random access memory (DRAM), NOR flash and mobile RAM products.
Shipments of specialty DRAM and NOR flash products rose sequentially in the first quarter, but those of mobile RAM declined because of customer inventory adjustment.
“Given better market demand, increased shipments in most product segments and higher utilization rates, second quarter saw an improvement from the previous quarter,” Winbond said in the statement.
Looking ahead, the company expects gross margins to improve because of a better product mix, with demand continuing to increase for specialty DRAM used in liquid-crystal-display TVs, set-top boxes, networking and high-density display (HDD) markets.
As for NOR flash products, the company expects demand to be strong in the HDD and LCD TV markets, it said.
Winbond’s board yesterday also approved a proposal to enter into a product transfer and technology licensing agreement with Qimonda AG for graphic memory chips used in desktop PCs, notebook PCs and game consoles.
“The plan is to acquire Qimonda’s graphic double data rate related product design and technology that will enable Winbond to move into the graphic DRAM application market,” Winbond said in a separate statement.
In the first half of the year, Winbond posted a net loss of NT$7.97 billion, or NT$2.19 per share, on revenues of NT$7.33 billion. It reported a net loss of NT$3.04 billion, or NT$0.82 per share, a year ago, on revenues of NT$12.99 billion.
Shares of Winbond fell 3.95 percent to NT$6.57 before the release of its quarterly figures. The stock has risen 112.6 percent year to date, outperforming the benchmark index’s 51.5 percent rise.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six