Rexchip Electronics Corp (瑞晶電子), a PC memory chip manufacturing venture between Elipda Memory Inc of Japan and Taiwan’s Powerchip Semiconductor Corp (力晶半導體), yesterday posted its third consecutive quarterly net profit as recovering demand boosted chip prices.
Rexchip recovered earlier than most peers from the industry’s worst downturn by posting its first quarterly profits since its establishment in 2006 in the third quarter of last year.
Powerchip swung back into the black in the fourth quarter of last year, while Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技), the nation’s top PC memory chipmaker, is still working to return to positive territory.
In the first three months of this year, Rexchip’s net income grew around 28 percent to NT$4.08 billion (US$128 million), or NT$1.39 per share, from NT$3.19 billion, or NT$1.08 a share, in the final quarter of last year, the company said.
DRAM prices rose 2.9 percent quarter-on-quarter in the first quarter, bucking a downtrend of 14.7 percent on average over the past 20 years, according to iSuppli Corp. That could bode well for the industry and this year could be the best year for DRAM companies, the research firm said, without providing detailed figures.
During the first three months, Rexchip’s revenues more than tripled to NT$12.16 billion, according to a stock exchange filing, compared with NT$3.83 billion last year as posted on the company’s Web site.
Rexchip said gross margin was 38 percent last quarter. As of the first quarter, the chipmaker had accumulated NT$3.95 billion in cash and cash equivalents after generating cash flow of NT$8.16 billion.
Tokyo-based Elpida holds a 64 percent share of Rexchip, while Powerchip, the nation’s No. 2 DRAM supplier, owns 34 percent.
For the full year last year, Rexchip lost NT$2.37 billion as prices plummeted on overcapacity and stagnant demand amid the economic recession. Revenues totaled NT$29.5 billion last year. Gross margin was 2 percent.
In a separate filing yesterday, Rexchip said it obtained a batch of equipment from ASML Holding N.V. and its subsidiaries for NT$7.3 billion on April 28.
Rexchip, which operates a 12-inch wafer plant in Taichung, planned to make 80,000 12-inch wafers a month using 45-nanometer technology after completing technology migration from existing 65-nanometer technology.
Shares of Rexchip fell 1.68 percent to NT$31 yesterday on the smaller Emerging Stock Market, which is a preparatory board for Taiwan’s two main bourses.
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