Memory module supplier Adata Technology Co (威剛科技) yesterday said that contract prices for NAND flash memory are expected to rebound this quarter, following an uptrend in DRAM prices.
However, supply constraints would carry into next quarter, as recovering demand from automakers adds pressure to an industry beset by strong demand for notebook computers, smartphones and data centers, Adata said.
DRAM prices are expected to climb steadily after a trough at the beginning of December last year, with more marked hikes next quarter, Adata chairman Simon Chen (陳立白) said.
Photo: CNA
A severe supply crunch is expected in the second half of this year, Chen said.
The company, which is based in New Taipei City’s Sindian District (新店), said that it has built at least two months of DRAM chip inventory for its own use.
Adata’s financial performance this quarter would be significantly better than last quarter, Chen said.
Higher shipments of solid-state drives (SSD) have helped, he said.
The company’s revenue for last month grew 12.27 percent to NT$2.81 billion (US$99.41 million), compared with NT$2.5 billion in February last year, aided by a rise in DRAM prices and improved demand for NAND memory chips for SSD storage, Adata said in a statement.
On a monthly basis, revenue fell 4 percent from NT$2.93 billion.
DRAM products accounted for about 40 percent of the company’s total revenue last month, SSD products contributed 42 percent, and memory cards, flash drives and other items made up 16 percent, it said.
“Since the beginning of this year, customers have been placing orders aggressively,” Adata said. “Employees worked overtime during the Lunar New Year holiday to satisfy demand.”
The company said that it is bullish about this year’s business outlook, citing robust demand.
In the first two months of this year, revenue jumped 32.26 percent to NT$5.74 billion from NT$4.34 billion in the same period last year.
DRAM chipmaker Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技) on Wednesday reported that last month’s revenue was its highest in 28 months, driven by higher prices.
Revenue rose 26.91 percent to NT$5.79 billion, from NT$4.56 billion in February last year, and grew 4.68 percent from NT$5.53 billion in January, Nanya said.
Nanya president Lee Pei-ing (李培瑛) in January said that he expected a DRAM price uptrend to continue throughout the first half of this year, and it might extend into the second half as the COVID-19 pandemic-driven stay-at-home economy, as well as a chip shortage, boosts DRAM consumption for notebook computers, tablets, networking devices and game consoles.
Taiwan’s foreign exchange reserves fell below the US$600 billion mark at the end of last month, with the central bank reporting a total of US$596.89 billion — a decline of US$8.6 billion from February — ending a three-month streak of increases. The central bank attributed the drop to a combination of factors such as outflows by foreign institutional investors, currency fluctuations and its own market interventions. “The large-scale outflows disrupted the balance of supply and demand in the foreign exchange market, prompting the central bank to intervene repeatedly by selling US dollars to stabilize the local currency,” Department of Foreign
ENERGY ISSUES: The TSIA urged the government to increase natural gas and helium reserves to reduce the impact of the Middle East war on semiconductor supply stability Chip testing and packaging service provider ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光投控) yesterday said it planned to invest more than NT$100 billion (US$3.15 billion) in building a new advanced chip testing facility in Kaohsiung to keep up with customer demand driven by the artificial intelligence (AI) boom. That would be included in the company’s capital expenditure budget next year, ASE said. There is also room to raise this year’s capital spending budget from a record-high US$7 billion estimated three months ago, it added. ASE would have six factories under construction this year, another record-breaking number, ASE chief operating officer Tien Wu
Intel Corp is joining Elon Musk’s long-shot effort to develop semiconductors for Tesla Inc, Space Exploration Technologies Corp and xAI, marking a surprising twist in the chipmaker’s comeback bid. Intel would help the Terafab project “refactor” the technology in a chip factory, the company said on Tuesday in a post on X, Musk’s social media platform. That is a stage in the development process that typically helps make chips more powerful or reliable. The chipmaker’s shares jumped 4.2 percent to US$52.91 in New York trading on Tuesday. The Terafab project is a grand plan by Musk to eventually manufacture his own chips for
For weeks now, the global tech industry has been waiting for a major artificial intelligence (AI) launch from DeepSeek (深度求索), seen as a benchmark for China’s progress in the fast-moving field. More than a year has passed since the start-up put Chinese AI on the map in early last year with a low-cost chatbot that performed at a similar level to US rivals. However, despite reports and rumors about its imminent release, DeepSeek’s next-generation “V4” model is nowhere in sight. Speculation is also swirling over the geopolitical implications of which computer chips were chosen to train and power the new
RSS