Samsung Electronics Co and Hynix Semiconductor Inc, the world's two largest makers of computer memory chips, raised prices for their biggest customers because of a production shortage.
Hynix increased prices for the chips between 5 percent and 10 percent, said James Kim, head of investor relations at the Ichon, South Korea-based company. Suwon, Korea-based Samsung raised its prices for this month "significantly," Chu Woo-sik, head of investor relations, said today in a telephone interview.
Taiwan's Nanya Technology Corp (
Samsung and Hynix have been shifting production toward consumer electronics chips, leaving less capacity to fill orders from customers that make personal computers, such as Dell Inc.
Spot prices of computer memory chips surged 38 percent this year after tumbling 66 percent last year, according to Taiwan-based DrameXchange.com, Asia's biggest market for the chips.
"We're bullish on memory-chip makers," said Seong Hoon-chun, who helps manage the equivalent of US$1.8 billion at Chohung Investment Trust Management Co in Seoul. "Unlike in the past, we're not seeing typical seasonal weakness because there's a lot more products that use memory, so there's been a fundamental paradigm shift in the industry."
Nanya, Taiwan's second-largest memory chipmaker, raised its contract prices for this month about 20 percent from last month, said Amelia Chu, a manager at the company's public relations team.
Munich-based Infineon Technologies AG, Europe's second-largest semiconductor maker, declined to comment on whether it raised chip prices, spokesman Guenter Gaugler said. Daniel Francisco, a spokesman for Boise, Idaho-based Micron Technology Inc also declined to comment.
The shortage may last until the end of the first quarter, Samsung's Chu said. Samsung and Hynix raised prices for their contracts this month rather than on the spot market, which is for immediate delivery. Dell, Hewlett-Packard Co and other PC makers buy most of their chips on contract.
Shares of Samsung rose 0.3 percent to close at 706,000 won (US$733), and Hynix gained 1.3 percent to 35,450 won in Seoul. In Taiwan, shares of Powerchip Semiconductor Corp (
Shares of Infineon rose 1.7 percent to 7.76 euros (US$9.30) in Frankfurt, after climbing as much as 2.9 percent.
Micron shares climbed 7.5 percent to US$16.01, the stock's biggest gain in more than four months. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index, which tracks 19 chip-related stocks traded in the US, rose 2.2 percent.
Spot prices of the benchmark chip, known as double data rate 2 dynamic random access memory, last declined on Dec. 14, according to DrameXchange. Demand for computer memory has exceeded supply since mid-December, said Joyce Yang, a manager at DrameXchange.
Samsung and other memory chipmakers are raising production of chips for consumer electronics such as NAND flash that go into Apple Computer Inc's iPod Nano music players and graphic DRAM chips.
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