Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技), the world’s fourth-largest DRAM chipmaker, yesterday posted its smallest quarterly loss since the second quarter of last year as gross margin returned to positive territory for the first time in six quarters, driven by improvements in chip prices.
Losses narrowed to NT$813 million (US$24.95 million) during the quarter ended on June 30, compared with losses of NT$1.21 billion in the previous quarter. On an annual basis, losses widened from NT$771 billion.
Gross margin improved to 2.9 percent, compared with minus-2.9 percent in the first quarter and minus-11.2 percent in the second quarter last year.
Photo: Grace Hung, Taipei Times
Nanya Technology said it would have nearly broke even last quarter, if not for the effects of a massive earthquake in April that led to the company incurring about NT$657 million in damage.
Nanya president Lee Pei-ing (李培瑛) said the company might be able to post a profit this quarter, thanks to improving DDR4 inventory and better average selling prices, following a sequential increase of 12 to 13 percent last quarter.
Earlier this week, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) predicted that DRAM prices would increase 8 to 13 percent this quarter from a quarter earlier.
The company’s shipments are expected to return to growth this quarter after dropping 5 percent sequentially last quarter, Lee said.
Shipments for the whole of this year are expected to grow 20 percent, given a lower comparison base last year, he said.
As the world’s three major memorychip makers race to produce high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips and DDR5 modules used in artificial intelligence servers or high-end servers, the companies would produce fewer DDR4 chips, which would benefit Nanya Technology, he said.
However, economic slowdowns in China and Europe, along with geopolitical tensions, would continue to affect the use of DRAM chips used in PCs, smartphones and consumer electronics, Lee said.
China, alone, purchases about 40 percent of mobile DRAM, he said.
Nanya Technology has no plans to produce HBM chips in the short term, as the company’s strategy is to tap the DDR5 market first, he said.
DDR5 chips are also used in high-end cloud-computing devices and PCs, the company said.
The company plans to roll out its first DDR5 modules with 16-gigabit capacity in the second half of this year, with estimated sales contribution reaching about 10 percent of its monthly revenue, Lee said.
Nanya Technology has resumed full production on its chip lines and does not expect a strike by Samsung Electronics Co workers to affect supply and demand in the market, he said.
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