Memorychip supply should remain steady, as major chipmakers have not halted production at fabs in China due to a coronavirus outbreak, dispelling concerns about potential supply disruptions, market researcher TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday.
The researcher retained its forecast of mild price hikes for DRAM and NAND flash memory chips for this quarter, as chip suppliers have already settled on prices with clients, TrendForce said in a report.
China’s major DRAM chipmaker, ChangXin Memory Technologies Inc (CXMT, 合肥長鑫存儲), is running factories as normal, unaffected by the outbreak, TrendForce found in its survey.
CXMT operates factories in Hefei in Anhui Province, which borders Hubei Province, where the outbreak began.
CXMT has kept “capacity expansion plans on track and should not see any impact by the virus in the short term,” TrendForce said.
The Chinese company is also shipping chips as usual to clients with operations in China, as it plays a key role in China’s efforts to enhance its position in the semiconductor industry and is not subject to the government transportation ban for provinces severely affected by the epidemic, the researcher said.
Chinese DRAM maker Fujian Jinhua Integrated Circuit Co (福建晉華) is also operating its plants as normal and is exempt from the transportation lockdown, the report said.
South Korean DRAM maker SK Hynix Inc is not expected to be directly affected by the coronavirus, as its manufacturing facilities are in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, one province away from Hubei, TrendForce said.
SK Hynix ran its facilities nonstop during the Lunar New Year holiday, it said.
SK Hynix is the only one of the world’s top three DRAM makers that produce chips in China, the researcher said.
Overall, the outbreak has not had any substantial impact on DRAM production, TrendForce said, adding that it would closely monitor whether the supply of raw materials would be affected by the lockdown.
The outbreak has also had a limited effect on the supply of NAND flash memory from China, TrendForce said, adding that Chinese NAND flash memory chipmakers Yangtze Memory Technologies Co’s (YMTC, 長江存儲) and Wuhan Xinxin Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd’s (XMC, 武漢新芯) production lines were running smoothly during the holiday.
As XMC only contributes about 1 percent of the world’s NAND flash memory production, any production issue would have a limited effect on global supply, TrendForce said.
If the epidemic continues to spread, the chipmaker’s plans to expand capacity next quarter could be thwarted, the researcher added.
The outbreak has had no effect on Samsung Electronics Co and Intel Corp, as their factories are in Xian and Dalian, far from the affected areas, it added.
Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) yesterday said that its research institute has launched its first advanced artificial intelligence (AI) large language model (LLM) using traditional Chinese, with technology assistance from Nvidia Corp. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), said the LLM, FoxBrain, is expected to improve its data analysis capabilities for smart manufacturing, and electric vehicle and smart city development. An LLM is a type of AI trained on vast amounts of text data and uses deep learning techniques, particularly neural networks, to process and generate language. They are essential for building and improving AI-powered servers. Nvidia provided assistance
DOMESTIC SUPPLY: The probe comes as Donald Trump has called for the repeal of the US$52.7 billion CHIPS and Science Act, which the US Congress passed in 2022 The Office of the US Trade Representative is to hold a hearing tomorrow into older Chinese-made “legacy” semiconductors that could heap more US tariffs on chips from China that power everyday goods from cars to washing machines to telecoms equipment. The probe, which began during former US president Joe Biden’s tenure in December last year, aims to protect US and other semiconductor producers from China’s massive state-driven buildup of domestic chip supply. A 50 percent US tariff on Chinese semiconductors began on Jan. 1. Legacy chips use older manufacturing processes introduced more than a decade ago and are often far simpler than
STILL HOPEFUL: Delayed payment of NT$5.35 billion from an Indian server client sent its earnings plunging last year, but the firm expects a gradual pickup ahead Asustek Computer Inc (華碩), the world’s No. 5 PC vendor, yesterday reported an 87 percent slump in net profit for last year, dragged by a massive overdue payment from an Indian cloud service provider. The Indian customer has delayed payment totaling NT$5.35 billion (US$162.7 million), Asustek chief financial officer Nick Wu (吳長榮) told an online earnings conference. Asustek shipped servers to India between April and June last year. The customer told Asustek that it is launching multiple fundraising projects and expected to repay the debt in the short term, Wu said. The Indian customer accounted for less than 10 percent to Asustek’s
Gasoline and diesel prices this week are to decrease NT$0.5 and NT$1 per liter respectively as international crude prices continued to fall last week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) said yesterday. Effective today, gasoline prices at CPC and Formosa stations are to decrease to NT$29.2, NT$30.7 and NT$32.7 per liter for 92, 95 and 98-octane unleaded gasoline respectively, while premium diesel is to cost NT$27.9 per liter at CPC stations and NT$27.7 at Formosa pumps, the companies said in separate statements. Global crude oil prices dropped last week after the eight OPEC+ members said they would
RSS