Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技) expects seasonal demand for TVs, handsets and even PCs to help stabilize DRAM prices next month at the earliest, boding well for the fourth quarter’s prospects, a senior executive said yesterday.
If the recovering demand materializes, DRAM prices might fall by less than 5 percent sequentially next quarter in the best-case scenario, and could see a pickup in the final quarter of this year, the nation’s top DRAM chipmaker said.
“Weaker-than-expected demand for PCs has delayed a recovery that was originally expected to arrive in April or [last month],” vice president Lee Pei-ing (李培瑛) told reporters after Nanya’s annual general meeting.
Lee attributed the weak demand to low corporate PC replacement ahead of the launch of Microsoft Corp’s Windows 10 operating system and Intel Corp’s new Skylake processor, which are expected to hit the market next month.
“Now, [recovery] will largely depend on sales of handsets and TVs,” Lee said. “We strongly feel improved demand for smartphones in recent months, especially from China, which consumes 30 percent of the world’s total smartphones.”
On PC segment, “demand will not deteriorate further [in the second half],” Lee said. “We expect corporate demand to happen in the second half.”
DRAM prices are expected to plunge 15 percent year-on-year in the first half because of oversupply and sagging demand, market researcher TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) has forecast.
Recovering demand for smartphones, TVs, servers and PCs is expected to extend to next year, while DRAM production is to grow at about 30 percent annually, after increasing 25 percent this year, the executive said.
“Next year’s growth rate will still be stable, as there is no irrational capacity race in sight,” Lee said. “We are not pessimistic about next year. We still have a chance to make profits as long as we continue to drive costs lower.”
Nanya plans to invest a total of NT$40 billion (US$1.28 billion) in a new factory making 20-nanometer (nm) and 30nm chips, following global rivals including Samsung Electronics Co, SK Hynix Inc and Micron Technology Inc.
The company’ s board yesterday approved a plan to issue up to 400 million new shares to fund the construction of the new factory.
Nanya said it aims to raise between NT$15 billion and NT$20 billion from the share offerings next quarter.
Shareholders also approved the distribution of a NT$2 cash dividend per common share based on last year’s record-high profit of NT$28.24 billion, or NT$11.77 per share. The company has not distributed a cash dividend since 2008.
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