DRAM chipmaker Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技) yesterday posted the weakest monthly revenue in about one-and-a-half years as uncertainty over the US-China trade dispute and excess inventory deterred demand.
Nanya’s revenue contracted 11.82 percent to NT$4.26 billion (US$138.27 million) last month from NT$4.83 billion in December and hit its lowest level since June last year.
Compared with a year earlier, revenue plunged 30.73 percent from NT$6.15 billion.
The decline came as chip prices plunged by 14 to 16 percent last month from the previous month, Nanya said.
“Pricing pressure last month was worse than our guidance. Demand was softer than expected. Customers were conservative about orders,” Joseph Wu (吳志祥), a deputy spokesman of the company, said by telephone.
Shipments rebounded by 4 to 6 percent sequentially last month and the company expects shipments to be flat or rise slightly this quarter from last quarter, Wu said.
The company last month said that the industry had entered a downturn last quarter and would remain in the doldrums this quarter and possibly next.
The downbeat forecast reflected broader weakness in the global semiconductor industry, which might see a low-single-digit percentage decline in revenue this year from US$470 billion last year, trade group SEMI forecast, citing a severe correction in memorychip manufacturing.
The company attributed the sluggish demand to the US-China trade dispute and supply constraints at microprocessor manufacturer Intel Corp.
Weak end demand in smartphones and cryptocurrency mining activities were also unfavorable factors, it said.
Meanwhile, memorychip maker Winbond Electronics Corp (華邦電子) said that revenue climbed 5.01 percent to NT$3.88 billion last month, compared with NT$3.69 billion in the previous month, but dropped 6.49 percent from NT$4.15 billion a year ago.
Winbond president Chan Tung-yi (詹東義) on Jan. 31 said that chip prices would be relatively stable this quarter after falling by a low-single-digit percentage last quarter.
Overall memory demand was healthy, given strong growth in chip consumption in smartphones, PCs and other electronics, he said.
Chunghwa Precision Test Tech Co (中華精測), which provides probe card testing services for semiconductors, posted revenue of NT$253 million last month, up 17.29 percent from NT$215 million in December and 1.72 percent from NT$248 million a year earlier.
The company is scheduled to hold an investors’ conference on Thursday to disclose its financial results for last quarter and its business outlook for this quarter.
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