Japan’s curbs on key semiconductor material exports to South Korea would not significantly boost the prices of memory chips in the short term, due to chipmakers’ high inventories, market researcher TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said in a report yesterday.
Memorychip makers have seen chip prices plunging for the past three quarters due to oversupply and sluggish end product demand, TrendForce said.
The Japan-South Korea dispute led to hikes in the prices of DRAM modules, due to increasingly tight supply of key materials used in the manufacturing of semiconductors, smartphones and flat panels, the Taipei-based firm said.
However, “the possibility is slim that such disputes will trigger a short-term, structural reversal of supply and demand,” since Japan has only lengthened the export procedures for photoresist, hydrogen fluoride and etching gas to South Korea, but did not ban them altogether, the report said.
High inventories could serve as a buffer, TrendForce implied.
As DRAM suppliers generally have more than three months of chips in stock, prices for DRAM chips used in PCs, servers and handsets are likely to see an extended decline at the beginning of this quarter, TrendForce said.
“No signs of reversal are found as of present,” it said. “The possibility of a structural reversal of supply and demand in the DRAM market should be slim.”
On the NAND flash front, prices are to increase this month, as supply tightened amid Japan’s export controls and Toshiba Memory Corp’s production loss from a brief power outage last month, the report said.
However, the price increases would be short-lived, given that NAND flash chip suppliers usually keep two to three months of chips in their inventories, the report said.
In the long run, NAND flash memorychip makers face downward price pressure, TrendForce said.
TV and online retailer Momo.com Inc (富邦媒體) yesterday said it has set up a new logistics subsidiary, Fu Sheng Logistics Co (富昇物流), to oversee the company’s extensive shipping operations. Leveraging Momo’s 23 satellite warehouses and distribution centers nationwide, Fu Sheng will be in charge of executing the retailer’s same-day shipment plan for deliveries in Taipei, New Taipei City, Taoyuan, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung, Momo said in a press release. Seeking to further shorten its supply chain, the company is to set up another seven satellite warehouses and distribution centers by the end of the year. “Fu Sheng has a fleet of 200 couriers
US-CHINA TENSIONS: The company said that it supplies self-designed chips to the Chinese company and, as such, is not affected by the latest US export restrictions Macronix International Co (旺宏電子) said it does not expect its shipments of memory chips to Huawei Technologies Co (華為) to be affected by the latest US export restrictions on the Chinese tech giant. “As long as the company [Huawei] places orders, we will ship [chips], unless the [Taiwanese] government restricts all Taiwanese companies from shipping” to Huawei, Macronix chairman and chief executive officer Miin Wu (吳敏求) said on Monday in Hsinchu. The US Department of Commerce on Friday took a further step to block chip supplies from non-US companies to Huawei by requiring foreign semiconductor makers to get US government permission before
‘ACCORDING TO PLAN’: A company official said that it has set up production sites worldwide to provide services and that its Wisconsin project was going smoothly Hon Hai Precision Industry Co’s (鴻海精密) smart manufacturing center in Wisconsin would begin trial manufacturing in the middle of this year, the company said yesterday, adding that it plans to build a research institute to develop key technologies to support growth over the next five years. Hon Hai, known internationally as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), said in an annual report submitted to the Taiwan Stock Exchange that its planned Foxconn Institute for Research in Science and Technology would conduct research into artificial intelligence, next-generation communications, quantum computing, cybersecurity and nano semiconductors in Taiwan. Hon Hai is to make products at the center
E Ink Holdings Inc (元太科技), the world’s sole supplier of e-paper displays for e-readers and shelf labels, posted its best quarterly net profit for the first quarter in nine years amid increased demand during a traditionally slow season. Net profit soared 80 percent to NT$787 million (US$26.23 million) in the quarter ended March 31, compared with NT$438 million a year earlier. That translated into earnings per share of NT$0.69, up from NT$0.39. E Ink posted lower royalty income of NT$371.23 million last quarter from NT$448.74 million a year earlier, a company financial statement showed. E Ink said that it expects royalty income to
RSS