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.
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