Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技), the nation’s largest computer memory chipmaker, aims to double its global market share to 10 percent this year as capacity is expected to grow rapidly after the completion of an upgrade to next-generation technology this summer, a company executive said yesterday.
Because the firm converted to stack technology used by its US partner Micron Technology Inc and to 50-nanometer technology, Nanya Technology only expanded capacity by 15 percent last year.
“This year, our capacity will substantially increase as we will complete technological conversion [to 42-nanometer technology] and start production with new technology,” company president Jih Lien (連日昌) told reporters at a press conference.
To overcome its technological bottleneck, Nanya Technology will expand production at its 12-inch plant to 50,000 wafers a month, from the existing 30,000 wafers, he said.
That would help Nanya claim a larger global market share.
“We will double our market share,” Lien said. “It [10 percent] is [a] reachable [target].”
The chipmaker said it would stick to its previous budget of NT$12 billion (US$407.7 million) to buy new equipment this year.
Nanya Technology also operates an 8-inch plant, from which it churns out chips for other companies, or non-computer memory chips such as memory chips used in mobile phones and tablet devices.
In order to minimize price erosion, Nanya Technology intends to boost production of non-computer memory chips to account for 50 percent of the company’s overall revenues next year, Lien said, from a target of 40 percent by the end of this year.
Separately, Nanya president Pai Pei-lin (白培霖) expects computer memory chip prices to rise further after easing oversupply drove up prices by a low single digit percent last month.
“The second quarter will be a better period than the first quarter because of improving oversupply,” Pai said.
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