Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技), the nation’s No. 2 computer memory chipmaker, reported wider quarterly losses yesterday as slack PC demand drove prices lower.
Third-quarter net losses ballooned to NT$2.27 billion (US$73.39 million), compared with losses of NT$1.09 billion in the second quarter, making it the third straight quarterly loss after a brief turnaround in the final quarter of last year.
However, compared with a year ago, the third-quarter losses were an improvement from losses of NT$3.9 billion.
The average selling price fell 15 percent last quarter from the second quarter, leading to a decline of its gross margin from 10 percent to 6 percent. The price is expected to drop further this quarter because of weaker-than-expected PC demand, company spokesman Pai Pei-lin (白培霖) said.
Dell Inc is Nanya Technology’s biggest client.
Nanya Technology trimmed its output growth forecast for this year to an annual expansion of 25 percent yesterday, from 35 percent estimated three months ago.
“The technological migration is more difficult than we expected,” Pai said.
Overall, the company was unlikely to return to the black this quarter and the whole year, judging by its fourth-quarter outlook, said an industry analyst, who declined to be named.
In the first three quarters, Nanya Technology lost NT$4.99 billion.
Inotera Memories Inc (華亞科技), a PC memory joint venture between Nanya Technology and US memory chipmaker Micron Technology Inc, yesterday also posted bigger quarterly losses.
Net losses increased to NT$2.62 billion in the June-September period last quarter, compared to losses of NT$1.81 billion in the second quarter, according to a company statement.
Gross margin worsened to minus 19 percent last quarter, from minus 7 percent in the second quarter.
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has appointed Rose Castanares, executive vice president of TSMC Arizona, as president of the subsidiary, which is responsible for carrying out massive investments by the Taiwanese tech giant in the US state, the company said in a statement yesterday. Castanares will succeed Brian Harrison as president of the Arizona subsidiary on Oct. 1 after the incumbent president steps down from the position with a transfer to the Arizona CEO office to serve as an advisor to TSMC Arizona’s chairman, the statement said. According to TSMC, Harrison is scheduled to retire on Dec. 31. Castanares joined TSMC in
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the