DRAM chipmaker Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技) expects selling prices this quarter to edge downward by a single-digit percentage or remain flat from last quarter as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and China’s COVID-19 lockdowns add to market uncertainty and dim business prospects.
As Russia’s war against Ukraine prompted raw material costs and shipping fees to surge, and concern has grown over rising inflation, placing a dent in consumer demand for electronics such as TVs, Nanya Technology president Lee Pei-ing (李培瑛) told an online media briefing yesterday.
“On the demand side, smartphone demand did slow a bit. Consumer notebook computers were also affected. High inflation and weaker consumer spending were likely the reasons. Seasonal factors were also behind the slowdown,” Lee said.
Photo: Grace Hung, Taipei Times
Demand for DRAM chips used in cloud-based servers, commercial laptops and gaming computers remains solid, he said.
“From prices in April, it looks like any price decline in the second quarter will be smaller, or even flat, compared with the first quarter,” Lee said. “But, there is a lot of uncertainty. We need to look at the market situation month by month for the rest of the quarter.”
Overall, DRAM prices this quarter are likely to dip by a low single-digit percentage on a quarterly basis, or remain unchanged, after a 5 percent decline in DRAM prices in the first quarter, Lee said.
Before the war, Nanya Technology expected a robust rebound in prices and estimated that DRAM prices would begin to climb in the second quarter.
However, the firm’s shipments in this quarter are likely to resemble the first quarter’s, Lee said yesterday.
The war in Ukraine has not had a significant effect on the company’s chip shipments due to its small exposure to Russia and Ukraine, Nanya Technology said, adding that it suspended shipments to Russia after it invaded its neighbor on Feb. 24.
The lockdown in Shanghai is bringing challenges to the whole supply chain, as customers try to find solutions to transport restrictions in China, Lee said, adding that the lockdown has made it difficult to transport goods in and out of the city.
Lee added that some customers had said that the curbs could remain in place until Monday next week in some districts of Shanghai.
Some customers have destined deliveries to Chongqing, a manufacturing hub for notebook computer makers, or even to Thailand, he said.
Nanya Technology yesterday posted NT$6.55 billion (US$225.47 million) in net profit for last quarter, up 1.5 percent quarter-on-quarter from NT$6.45 billion. That represented annual growth of 142 percent from NT$2.7 billion.
Earnings per share last quarter rose to NT$2.11 from NT$2.08 a quarter earlier and NT$0.88 a year earlier, while gross margin fell for a third straight quarter to 31.4 percent from 37.5 percent in the first quarter.
Construction of a 12-inch fab is to be postponed by two to three quarters due to red tape, Nanya Technology said, adding that the fab would likely begin mass production in 2025, not 2024.
The firm has this year budgeted NT$28.4 billion in capital spending to fund construction and expand capacity, and manufacture its first 10-nanometer class of chips — “10-nanometer class” includes using 10-nanometer to 20-nanometer advance process technologies.
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
ADVERSARIES: The new list includes 11 entities in China and one in Taiwan, which is a local branch of Chinese cloud computing firm Inspur Group The US added dozens of entities to a trade blacklist on Tuesday, the US Department of Commerce said, in part to disrupt Beijing’s artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced computing capabilities. The action affects 80 entities from countries including China, the United Arab Emirates and Iran, with the commerce department citing their “activities contrary to US national security and foreign policy.” Those added to the “entity list” are restricted from obtaining US items and technologies without government authorization. “We will not allow adversaries to exploit American technology to bolster their own militaries and threaten American lives,” US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said. The entities
Minister of Finance Chuang Tsui-yun (莊翠雲) yesterday told lawmakers that she “would not speculate,” but a “response plan” has been prepared in case Taiwan is targeted by US President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariffs, which are to be announced on Wednesday next week. The Trump administration, including US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, has said that much of the proposed reciprocal tariffs would focus on the 15 countries that have the highest trade surpluses with the US. Bessent has referred to those countries as the “dirty 15,” but has not named them. Last year, Taiwan’s US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US
Prices of gasoline and diesel products at domestic gas stations are to fall NT$0.2 and NT$0.1 per liter respectively this week, even though international crude oil prices rose last week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) said yesterday. International crude oil prices continued rising last week, as the US Energy Information Administration reported a larger-than-expected drop in US commercial crude oil inventories, CPC said in a statement. Based on the company’s floating oil price formula, the cost of crude oil rose 2.38 percent last week from a week earlier, it said. News that US President Donald Trump plans a “secondary
RSS