DRAM chipmaker Inotera Memories Inc (華亞科技) on Monday said it made NT$1.13 billion (US$40 million) in profit, or NT$0.21 in earnings per share, last month, ending a three-year-long losing streak.
The firm’s revenue soared by 36 percent to NT$3.44 billion last month from NT$2.53 billion in February — its highest level in about two years — and by 36.7 percent from the NT$2.52 billion posted in the same month a year earlier.
Despite the much-anticipated turnaround, Inotera’s shares tumbled 6.98 percent in Taipei trading yesterday as investors unloaded their holdings to profit from the stock’s rise. Shares closed at NT$8.39 yesterday and have rallied 116 percent so far this year.
Inotera chairman Charles Kau said he expected a “significant improvement” in the company’s first-quarter performance, citing rising chip prices and new agreements inked with its major stakeholders: US memorychip maker Micron Technology Inc and Taiwan’s Nanaya Technology Corp (南亞科技).
Kau said Micron had agreed to buy about 90 percent of Inotera-produced chips for above market price, adding that the company plans to start producing memory chips other than DRAM chips with technologies from Micron.
As of the middle of last month, prices for mainstream DDR3/2Gb chips had risen more than 66 percent to US$1.75 per unit since the beginning of this year, driven by strong demand for white-box tablets in China, according to a TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) report showed two weeks ago.
Chinese white-box tablet makers use PC DRAM chips in their tablets, rather than higher-priced mobile DRAM chips in order to cut costs, the Taipei-based researcher said. That made the tablet segment a major driving force for PC DRAM chips, offsetting sluggish demand from PC makers, it said.
INVESTOR RESILIENCE? An analyst said that despite near-term pressures, foreign investors tend to view NT dollar strength as a positive signal for valuation multiples Morgan Stanley has flagged a potential 10 percent revenue decline for Taiwan’s tech hardware sector this year, as a sharp appreciation of the New Taiwan dollar begins to dent the earnings power of major exporters. In what appears to be the first such warning from a major foreign brokerage, the US investment bank said the currency’s strength — fueled by foreign capital inflows and expectations of US interest rate cuts — is compressing profit margins for manufacturers with heavy exposure to US dollar-denominated revenues. The local currency has surged about 10 percent against the greenback over the past quarter and yesterday breached
MARKET FACTORS: Navitas Semiconductor Inc said that Powerchip is to take over from TSMC as its supplier of high-voltage gallium nitride chips Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday in a statement said that it would phase out its compound semiconductor gallium nitride (GaN) business over the next two years, citing market dynamics. The decision would not affect its financial targets announced previously, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker said. “We are working closely with our customers to ensure a smooth transition and remain committed to meeting their needs during this period,” it said. “Our focus continues to be on delivering sustained value to our partners and the market.” TSMC’s latest move came unexpectedly, as the chipmaker had said in its annual report that it has
SECURITY WARNING: The company possesses key 3-nanometer technology, and Taiwan should prevent it from being transferred to China, a lawmaker said The Ministry of Economic Affairs yesterday said it would conduct a “strict review” of any proposed acquisition of Taiwanese tech company Source Photonics Co (索爾思光電), following media reports that a Chinese firm was planning to buy the company in the Hsinchu Science Park (新竹科學園區). Local media reported that Suzhou Dongshan Precision Manufacturing Co (東山精密), China’s largest printed circuit board manufacturer, had announced plans to acquire Source Photonics for 5.9 billion yuan (US$823.1 million). The ministry said it has not received an application from Source Photonics and has formally notified the company that any buyout would constitute a change in its ownership structure. The
ELECTRONICS: Strong growth in cloud services and smart consumer electronics offset computing declines, helping the company to maintain sales momentum, Hon Hai said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) on Saturday announced that its sales for last month rose 10 percent year-on-year, driven by strong growth in cloud and networking products amid the ongoing artificial intelligence (AI) boom. The company, also known internationally as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), reported consolidated sales of NT$540.24 billion (US$18.67 billion) for the month, the highest ever for the period, and a 10.09 percent increase from a year earlier, although it was down 12.26 percent from the previous month. Hon Hai, which is Apple Inc’s primary iPhone assembler and makes servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s AI accelerators, said its cloud
RSS