Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技), the nation’s top computer memory chipmaker, yesterday posted its smallest quarterly loss in more than two years as prices bounced back 35 percent quarter-on-quarter on faster-than-expected recovery in PC demand.
In the quarter ending on Sept. 30, Nanya’s loss narrowed to NT$3.89 billion (US$120 million), compared with a loss of NT$8.77 billion a year ago and a loss of NT$6.54 billion in the second quarter after adjustment, the company said in a statement. Revenues were flat at NT$11.51 billion last quarter.
This was the best performance since the third quarter of 2007, when the chipmaker lost NT$1.67 billion.
The Taoyuan-based Nanya saw the recent recovery as a precursor to a broader revival in corporate computer replacement next year.
To cope with a rebound, Nanya intends to increase capital spending to a combined NT$64 billion from NT$26.7 billion budgeted for this year, as well as through Inotera Memories Inc (華亞科技), its memory venture with Micron Technology Inc.
Nanya said it wanted to have enough capacity “before a demand tsunami occurs in the second half of next year,” Nanya Technology spokesman Pai Pei-lin (白培霖) told a media briefing.
As corporations have frozen IT spending for the past three years, PC replacement demand will be strong, Pai said.
Next year, Nanya and Inotera will spend most of their budget on technological upgrades to cost-efficient 50-nanometer technology, with the aim of completing the migration by the middle of the year, Pai said.
This should increase output by 65 percent annually next year, the company said.
This year, the chipmaker’s output is expected to grow 37 percent year-on-year.
The adoption of new-generation technology will help Nanya save 50 percent in manufacturing costs.
The company currently uses 68-nanometer technology to make next-generation DDR3 memory chips, Nanya said.
Pai said a price uptrend could extend into the current quarter as recovering demand has beaten most PC makers’ expectations and driven inventories down to very low levels.
“The recent revival has been fueled by rising consumer demand. We’re starting to see small and medium companies buying PCs,” Pai said.
Next month, Nanya intends to raise prices of mainstream DDR2 memory chips by 20 percent at a monthly rate, extending the same price hikes over the past three months, Pai said.
Pai, however, said that Nanya would remain in the red this quarter, limited by output growth during the technological migration.
To fund capacity expansion, Nanya said that it would raise NT$12.8 billion by selling 8 billion shares and taking NT$18 billion in syndicated loans by the end of this year.
Inotera also intends to borrow NT$20 billion from banks by the end of this year.
Inotera yesterday posted an improved quarterly loss of NT$2.5 billion, compared with a loss of NT$4.05 billion a year earlier and a loss of NT$4.11 billion in the second quarter.
SETBACK: Apple’s India iPhone push has been disrupted after Foxconn recalled hundreds of Chinese engineers, amid Beijing’s attempts to curb tech transfers Apple Inc assembly partner Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), also known internationally as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has recalled about 300 Chinese engineers from a factory in India, the latest setback for the iPhone maker’s push to rapidly expand in the country. The extraction of Chinese workers from the factory of Yuzhan Technology (India) Private Ltd, a Hon Hai component unit, in southern Tamil Nadu state, is the second such move in a few months. The company has started flying in Taiwanese engineers to replace staff leaving, people familiar with the matter said, asking not to be named, as the
The prices of gasoline and diesel at domestic fuel stations are to rise NT$0.1 and NT$0.4 per liter this week respectively, after international crude oil prices rose last week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) announced yesterday. Effective today, gasoline prices at CPC and Formosa stations are to rise to NT$27.3, NT$28.8 and NT$30.8 per liter for 92, 95 and 98-octane unleaded gasoline respectively, the companies said in separate statements. The price of premium diesel is to rise to NT$26.2 per liter at CPC stations and NT$26 at Formosa pumps, they said. The announcements came after international crude oil prices
A German company is putting used electric vehicle batteries to new use by stacking them into fridge-size units that homes and businesses can use to store their excess solar and wind energy. This week, the company Voltfang — which means “catching volts” — opened its first industrial site in Aachen, Germany, near the Belgian and Dutch borders. With about 100 staff, Voltfang says it is the biggest facility of its kind in Europe in the budding sector of refurbishing lithium-ion batteries. Its CEO David Oudsandji hopes it would help Europe’s biggest economy ween itself off fossil fuels and increasingly rely on climate-friendly renewables. While
SinoPac Financial Holdings Co (永豐金控) is weighing whether to add a life insurance business to its portfolio, but would tread cautiously after completing three acquisitions in quick succession, president Stanley Chu (朱士廷) said yesterday. “We are carefully considering whether life insurance should play a role in SinoPac’s business map,” Chu told reporters ahead of an earnings conference. “Our priority is to ensure the success of the deals we have already made, even though we are tracking some possible targets.” Local media have reported that Mercuries Life Insurance Co (三商美邦人壽), which is seeking buyers amid financial strains, has invited three financial
RSS