Shares of memorychip maker Macronix International Co (旺宏電子) rallied to almost reach the 7 percent daily limit yesterday on reports that it has tapped into the rapidly growing wearable technology market by supplying chips for Samsung Electronics Co’s latest wearable device.
The surge came following a report released on Friday on iFixit’s Web site and in the Chinese-language Commercial Times yesterday that the South Korean firm uses Macronix’s flash memory in its latest wearable device.
Macronix shares rose NT$0.45, or 6.99 percent, to NT$6.89 yesterday, while the TAIEX edged only 0.08 percent higher.
The trading volume of Macronix stock spiked to 39.31 million shares from 7.2 million shares on Tuesday, making the company the fifth-most active trading stock on the local stock market, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed.
Samsung unveiled the fitness tracker Gear Fit on Feb. 24 at the annual Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, and said it would market the curved-display device globally this month.
Macronix did not deny the report.
The company said the information obtained by the media was provided by the company, according to a filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
According to market researcher IDC’s forecast, shipments of wearable devices are likely to grow to more than 19 million units this year, more than tripling last year’s sales.
Global shipments will expand at a compound annual growth rate of 78.4 percent to 111.9 million units in 2018 from this year, the researcher said.
Flash memory is the biggest revenue source for Macronix, accounting for a 58 percent share of its total revenue of NT$5.86 billion (US$194 million) in the final quarter of last year.
The Hsinchu-based company, which counts Japanese video game console maker Nintendo Co as its biggest client, posted its eighth consecutive quarterly loss, of NT$1.5 billion, for the fourth quarter of last year.
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Macronix International Co (旺宏), the world’s biggest NOR flash memory supplier, yesterday said it would spend NT$22 billion (US$699.1 million) on capacity expansion this year to increase its production of mid-to-low-density memory chips as the world’s major memorychip suppliers are phasing out the market. The company said its planned capital expenditures are about 11 times higher than the NT$1.8 billion it spent on new facilities and equipment last year. A majority of this year’s outlay would be allocated to step up capacity of multi-level cell (MLC) NAND flash memory chips, which are used in embedded multimedia cards (eMMC), a managed
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