Taiwan’s top PC DRAM chipmaker, Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技), suffered a substantial loss in its global market share last quarter, primarily because of a 32 percent quarterly decline in its average selling price, market researcher IHS iSuppli said yesterday.
In the second quarter, Nanya Technology, ranked No. 5 in the world’s PC DRAM market, seized a 4.7 percent share of the world’s PC DRAM market by revenue, IHS iSuppli said in a report. This dropped to 3.6 percent last quarter, the report said.
The “significant drop [is] largely driven by the supplier’s relatively weak ASP [average selling price],” IHS iSuppli analyst Mike Howard said in the report.
The Taoyuan-based chipmaker’s shipments grew by a scant quarterly rate of 7 percent, less than the industry average of 13 percent, Howard said.
Over the next few quarters, Nanya will face an uphill climb because of its heavy exposure to the PC DRAM market, which is expected to continue to be affected by oversupply, Howard said.
South Korean electronics -giant Samsung Electronics grabbed a -record-high market share of 45 percent in the third quarter, further strengthening its top position in the DRAM industry, IHS iSuppli said.
“Samsung perennially has the DRAM industry’s largest capital expenditure budget, allowing it to reduce costs and offer advanced products more quickly than the competition,” Howard said. “Because of this, the company was better able to absorb the decline in ASP in the third quarter, which fell 26 percent for the DRAM industry as a whole. Samsung’s ASP fell just 17 percent during the quarter.”
Samsung’s share of global DRAM market revenue has been rising in recent years, IHS iSuppli said. The South Korean chipmaker saw its market share expand to 37 percent last year, from 34 percent in 2009.
Winbond Electronics Corp (華邦電子) and Powerchip Technology Corp (力晶科技) saw their market shares increase to 1.6 percent and 0.9 percent respectively, while ProMOS Technologies Inc (茂德科技) dropped to 0.8 percent, IHS iSuppli’s tally showed.
Separately, Taipei-based market researcher TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) yesterday said in a statement that the price of mainstream PC DRAM chips dropped 6.39 percent to US$0.9 per unit in the first half of this year, from two weeks ago.
The market research house blamed Thailand’s severe floods, which halted hard disc drive production, delayed PC shipments and slowed DRAM chip demand, for the weak price in the PC industry’s seasonally slow fourth quarter.
That brought the price decline to 55 percent since May, TrendForce said.
The market researcher said the price decline slowed after major DRAM makers cut output, boding well for a recovery in the next quarter as the supply glut is expected to improve.
Presently, DRAM output has been reduced by 44 percent to 250,000 wafers a month from 450,000 wafers, TrendForce said.
Separately, Inotera Memories Inc (華亞科技), a PC DRAM venture between Nanya Technology and US memory giant Micron Technology Inc, yesterday said the board approved new fund-raising projects, including issuing a combined 1.5 billion common shares or corporate bonds via private placement.
The board also approved the plan to borrow US$133 million from Micron affiliate Numonyx Holdings BV.
The proceeds will be used to buy new equipment to increase production volume using advanced 30-nanometer technology.
Yesterday, the board also approved the proposal to scrap a rights issue by selling 1.1 billion common shares.
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