Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技), the nation's largest maker of high-speed computer-memory chips, said sales last month tripled from a year ago as Dell Computer Corp and Compaq Computer Corp, the biggest personal-computer makers, order more chips to meet a recovery in demand in the US.
Sales in January rose to NT$2.5 billion (US$71 million), boosted also by orders from International Business Machines Corp and Hewlett-Packard Co, Nanya spokesman Charles Kau (
The rise in sales at Nanya underscores a rebound in memory-chip prices, which remained below cost until November. Prices have more than tripled since then on optimism PC demand is recovering.
Market researcher Dataquest Corp forecasts PC sales will rise 4 percent in 2002, after falling to a record last year.
"Demand at Dell, Compaq and IBM is rising," Kau said. "The Japanese have to find different sources because Japanese companies are not making dynamic random-access memory chips anymore."
Toshiba, the second-biggest chipmaker, said in December it will sell an unprofitable computer-memory chip plant to Micron Technology Inc. NEC Corp, Japan's biggest PC-maker, said earlier it planned to withdraw from memory-chip production to cut costs.
Nanya said last week it had a greater-than-expected fourth-quarter loss of NT$2 billion as average chip prices remained below the cost of production.
Sales to customers such as Dell and Compaq, which buy memory chips on contract, accounted for 8 percent of sales in January, Kau said. Orders from IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Toshiba and NEC should boost sales of chips sold on contract to more than a fifth of total revenue this month.
Nanya wants to sell more chips on contract to obtain higher prices than those sold on the open market, Kau said.
Nanya won't delay installing equipment to expand production to the third quarter from the second as originally planned, Kau said, denying a Chinese-language newspaper report. "It's on schedule,"Kau said.
Nanya shares rose NT$2.50, or 5.1 percent, to NT$51.50 yesterday.
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