Memorychip maker Winbond Electronics Corp (華邦電) yesterday posted a loss of NT$147 million (US$4.88 million) for last quarter due to lower prices, dragging net profit for the whole of last year down to NT$1.47 billion.
This translated into earnings per share of NT$0.32 last year, down from NT$1.87 in 2018.
The decline was mainly due to an overall drop in average sales prices, Winbond chief financial officer Jessica Huang (黃求己) told an investors’ conference.
The firm also had to bear the costs associated with producing 25-nanometer chips, she said.
Winbond’s revenue last year reached NT$48.77 billion, slipping 4.73 percent on an annual basis, while its gross margin declined by 10 percentage points to 27 percent.
“One of three essential factors for making a profit — strong technology, good timing and stable partnerships — went wrong for us last year,” said Winbond president Chan Tung-yi (詹東益), who is also the company’s newly elected vice CEO.
Chan said he remains optimistic that the company would recover its losses this year.
While the company has in the past mainly focused on DRAM production, sales of its NOR and NAND flash memory chips have increased, making up 55 percent of its fourth-quarter revenue.
“We are seeing signs of recovery on the code storage flash market,” Chan said, adding that sales of single-level cell NAND should gain a greater market share for the firm.
The company has budgeted NT$14.3 billion in capital expenditures to increase production at its Taichung fab by installing smart manufacturing technology.
“We have already increased monthly production from 52,000 wafers to 54,000 wafers,” Chan said, adding that half of that is DRAM production and half flash memory.
Despite economic uncertainty due to the 2019 novel coronavirus outbreak, Chan said he is confident that the memory market would stabilize in the first half of this year.
The launch of 5G is picking up pace, driving applications in Internet protocol cameras, smart speakers and artificial intelligence, he said.
Chan said his outlook is equally optimistic about flash memory products, as demand is increasing from emerging technologies such as true wireless stereos and narrow-band Internet of Things applications, as well as the next generation of Wi-Fi technology.
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