Macronix International Co (
"We'll ship more unit devices to their box," Macronix Chairman Miin Wu (
Taiwan's fourth-largest chipmaker will supply more than the 8 million flash-memory chips it shipped last year to Nintendo as monthly sales of the GameCube, which debuted in the US in November, rise to 2 million units, Wu said.
PHOTO: BLOOMBERG
Some investors don't share Wu's optimism, saying they expect the second-largest video-game maker to use other memory-storage devices for the GameCube.
"We've been among the doubters," said Albert King, who manages US$857 million in equities for HSBC Asset Management Taiwan Ltd and has sold Macronix shares. "The GameCube will use DVD disks more for storage and that may have an impact on Macronix's sales of chips to Nintendo."
Macronix turned to a fourth-quarter loss of NT$3.3 billion (US$94 million) from a profit of NT$5 billion a year ago in part because Nintendo halted orders to Macronix to reduce inventory related to consoles it is phasing out, Wu said. Sales fell 64 percent to NT$4.3 billion.
PHOTO: BLOOMBERG
Macronix makes flash-memory chips, which store software in games and other consumer electronics until it is erased or upgraded, as well as other types of memory chips that store content permanently.
Japanese customers accounted for 61 percent of Macronix's sales in the fourth quarter, compared with 69 percent in the third quarter, the company said. Fourth-quarter sales fell 14 percent from NT$5 billion in the third quarter.
"Normally, we expect great sales in the fourth quarter," Wu said.
Wu said he expects Macronix's Japanese customers to be conservative in their purchases during the first quarter as they approach the end of their fiscal year in March.
Kyoto-based Nintendo's game machine debuted in Japan in September. Nintendo sold a better-than-planned 1.4 million GameCube consoles in the US by the end of December, and 1.3 million in Japan, it said.
Wu declined to forecast sales or profit numbers, citing a mandatory quiet period following the company's issue of bonds convertible into shares.
The sale will fund equipment for a new chip plant.
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