Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技), the nation’s biggest DRAM chipmaker, saw revenue hit its highest level in 15 months last month, but the company’s share price plunged when it resumed trading yesterday after being suspended.
Consolidated revenue was NT$4.46 billion (US$148.6 million) last month, up 1.47 percent month-on-month and 26.87 percent higher than a year earlier.
The company attributed the revenue growth to an increase in shipments last month, although the selling prices of its products remained mostly flat from the previous month.
During the first eight months of the year, the company’s cumulative revenue totaled NT$32.46 billion, an increase of 5.61 percent from the same period last year, according to a company filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange.
The share price of Nanya — which had been suspended from trading since Aug. 26 due to a 90 percent capital reduction — fell 6.67 percent to close at NT$75.5 yesterday in Taipei trading after opening at NT$80.9, as investors were concerned about recent negative news including rising inventories, flattening PC DRAM chip prices and Samsung Electronics Co’s potential DRAM capacity expansion.
Company spokesman Lee Pei-ing (李培瑛) last week said that speculation about Samsung’s planned massive increase in DRAM capacity had snapped the uptrend in DRAM chip prices. He forecast that prices would increase by 3.5 percent this quarter from last quarter, slower than the 5 percent increase he predicted three months ago.
However, UBS Securities Pte Ltd said it remained upbeat about the DRAM sector in the near term.
“We see no reason to change our long-held positive view on the DRAM sector,” UBS analysts led by Nicolas Gaudois said in a research note, adding that PC DRAM contract prices are expected to remain stable into next month, while mobile DRAM supply is also likely to stay tight in the near term in view of new product launches by Apple Inc.
UBS forecast the DRAM industry would show a 33.6 percent increase in shipment supply this year and 24.4 percent growth next year, against a 31.1 percent increase in demand this year and 26.3 percent demand growth next year.
The global DRAM supply-and-demand situation would also likely show a 0.7 percent undersupply next quarter and a 1.2 percent shortage for the whole of next year, the brokerage said, indicating “a fairly benign environment,” according to the note.
Separately, Inotera Memories Inc (華亞科技), a DRAM chip manufacturing joint venture between Nanya Technology and Micron Technology Inc, yesterday said its revenue rose 0.9 percent from July to NT$6.71 billion, the highest in the past 10 months.
On an annual basis, last month’s figure rose 20.5 percent and pushed the cumulative sales from January through last month to grow 70.16 percent to NT$55.04 billion from the same period last year, according to the company’s data.
Inotera shares fell 5.52 percent in Taipei trading yesterday to NT$45.35.
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