Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技), the nation’s top maker of computer memory chips or dynamic random access memory (DRAM), yesterday announced that sales last month grew 97 percent on the back of recovering demand for its chips from PC makers.
Last month, sales jumped to NT$5.22 billion (US$166 million) from NT$2.65 billion in April last year. That represented a slight decline from March’s NT$5.26 billion in sales.
Nanya Technology said it raised contract prices by 10 percent last month, from March, matching the Taoyuan-based chipmaker’s forecast as customers built up as much inventory as possible to cope with expected strong PC replacement demand in the second half of this year.
Shipments, however, fell about 8 percent month-on-month last month as output declined during the migration to more cost-efficient 50-nanometer technology and next-generation DD3 chips.
The migration is expected to be completed later this quarter, paving the way for a significant increase in output in the second half of the year, the chipmaker said.
Inotera Memories Inc (華亞科技), a DRAM joint venture between Nanya Technology and US memory giant Micron Technology Inc, yesterday said sales leapt 78.4 percent year-on-year, or 2.9 percent from the previous month, to NT$4.26 billion last month.
Powerchip Semiconductor Corp (力晶半導體), the nation’s No. 2 DRAM supplier, yesterday posted its strongest monthly sales in about three years.
Beating bigger rival Nanya Technology, Powerchip said sales last month grew more than six-fold to NT$7.53 billion, from NT$1.06 billion in April last year. That also meant about a 10 percent month-on-month increase, as recovering demand boosted prices and shipments, bucking the traditionally slow trend in the second quarter.
To cope with growing demand, Powerchip recently started supplying DRAM made by Rexchip Electronics Inc (瑞晶電子), a local joint venture with Japanese memory chipmaker Elpida Memories Inc, company spokesman Eric Tan (譚仲民) said in a company statement.
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