DRAM chipmaker Nanya Technology Co (南亞科技) yesterday forecast a quarterly decline of 10 percent in shipments for this quarter, as demand lost steam amid a worsening supply-demand imbalance, which further depressed shipments and prices.
The New Taipei City-based chipmaker originally estimated that shipments would be flat or drop slightly from last quarter in expectation of an improvement in oversupply.
The adjustment came “as the overall environment continues to plague the DRAM market. It will take longer to see a [marked] improvement,” Nanya Technology deputy spokesman Joseph Wu (吳志祥) said by telephone. “The first quarter is much worse than we anticipated.”
Shipments and average selling prices have fallen at a faster pace over the past two months, Wu said.
Last month alone, shipments dipped about 15 percent month-on-month, while chip prices slid about 5 percent monthly, the company said.
Nanya Technology attributed a flagging world economy, a US-China trade dispute and an unresolved short supply of PC microprocessors from Intel Corp for the low demand.
To avoid heavy US tariffs on Chinese imports, local original equipment manufacturing service providers are relocating their production lines to places outside China, Nanya Technology said, adding that production relocation has led to conservative ordering from such firms.
However, Nanya Technology does not plan to revise downward its full-year shipment forecast, Wu said.
The company in January said that it targeted a 10 to 15 percent growth in shipments year-over-year for this year, mostly in line with growth in the DRAM market.
However, it yesterday said that revenue last month plunged 43 percent to NT$3.39 billion (US$109.9 million) from NT$5.93 billion during the same period last year due to a combined slump in shipments and prices.
Last month’s revenue marked the weakest monthly revenue in 31 months.
Market researcher TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) yesterday predicted that DRAM chip prices this quarter would tumble about 30 percent quarter-on-quarter, marking the most dramatic decline since 2011.
TrendForce originally estimated that DRAM prices would fall 25 percent this quarter.
The researcher also warned that smaller-scale DRAM companies are facing a growing risk of becoming marginalized if they cannot catch up with their bigger rivals to expand capacities and upgrade technologies.
The world’s largest memorychip makers, including SK Hynix Inc, Samsung Electronics Co and Micron Technology Inc, have earmarked budgets to build new DRAM productions.
TrendForce said that Micron is considering building a new 12-inch fab in Taiwan.
Nanya Technology said that it does not plan to migrate to next-generation 1X and 1Y technologies ahead of schedule in response to its rivals’ plans.
It would take another year to evaluate technology availability and determine whether to use its own technology or license from Micron, the company said.
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