The price for mainstream computer memory chips may bounce back to exceed US$1 per unit as soon as the end of this quarter, helped by Lunar New Year demand in China and a supply glut, from an 85 percent plunge over the past year, a Taipei-based market researcher said yesterday.
The chip price would also get some support from falling supply from local dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chipmakers this quarter as the nation's No.3 DRAM maker ProMOS Technologies Inc (
Coupled with rising demand in the Chinese market, "It is highly likely the price for DDR2 will rebound to exceed US$1 to US$1.2 per unit," DRAMeXchange said.
The DRAM price has plunged to US$0.93 per unit on Dec. 31, compared to US$6.32 in the beginning of last year, according to the research house.
The price decline is expected to give local companies, led by Powerchip Semiconductor Corp (
Powerchip may post record high losses of NT$7.1 billion (US$220 million) for last quarter, while its smaller rivals Nanya Technology Corp (
"Their losses may narrow in the second quarter because of improvement in DRAM price. But I do not expect the companies will return to the black anytime soon as global rivals such as Samsung Electronics Co plan to expand production this year to gain market share," Liu said.
Shares of the nation's top DRAM makers -- Powerchip, Nanya and ProMOS -- jumped 1.98 percent to 3.32 percent yesterday in the wake of 3.3 percent improvement in the spot price over the past week.
Nanya Technology and Inotera Memories Inc (
"If DRAM companies cut production, or capital spending for this year before the second quarter, the price for higher-density DDR2 1GB will have a big chance of rising 35 percent further to over US$2.5 apiece, helping those companies to return to profits," DRAMeXchange said.
The report said it would be more cost-saving for local firmss to make DDR2 1GB than DDR2 512GB and that demand for high-density memory chips was on the rise.
The Eurovision Song Contest has seen a surge in punter interest at the bookmakers, becoming a major betting event, experts said ahead of last night’s giant glamfest in Basel. “Eurovision has quietly become one of the biggest betting events of the year,” said Tomi Huttunen, senior manager of the Online Computer Finland (OCS) betting and casino platform. Betting sites have long been used to gauge which way voters might be leaning ahead of the world’s biggest televised live music event. However, bookmakers highlight a huge increase in engagement in recent years — and this year in particular. “We’ve already passed 2023’s total activity and
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) today announced that his company has selected "Beitou Shilin" in Taipei for its new Taiwan office, called Nvidia Constellation, putting an end to months of speculation. Industry sources have said that the tech giant has been eyeing the Beitou Shilin Science Park as the site of its new overseas headquarters, and speculated that the new headquarters would be built on two plots of land designated as "T17" and "T18," which span 3.89 hectares in the park. "I think it's time for us to reveal one of the largest products we've ever built," Huang said near the
China yesterday announced anti-dumping duties as high as 74.9 percent on imports of polyoxymethylene (POM) copolymers, a type of engineering plastic, from Taiwan, the US, the EU and Japan. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce’s findings conclude a probe launched in May last year, shortly after the US sharply increased tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, computer chips and other imports. POM copolymers can partially replace metals such as copper and zinc, and have various applications, including in auto parts, electronics and medical equipment, the Chinese ministry has said. In January, it said initial investigations had determined that dumping was taking place, and implemented preliminary
Intel Corp yesterday reinforced its determination to strengthen its partnerships with Taiwan’s ecosystem partners including original-electronic-manufacturing (OEM) companies such as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) and chipmaker United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電). “Tonight marks a new beginning. We renew our new partnership with Taiwan ecosystem,” Intel new chief executive officer Tan Lip-bu (陳立武) said at a dinner with representatives from the company’s local partners, celebrating the 40th anniversary of the US chip giant’s presence in Taiwan. Tan took the reins at Intel six weeks ago aiming to reform the chipmaker and revive its past glory. This is the first time Tan
RSS