Micron Technology Inc, the largest US maker of memory chips, said the worst industry glut in more than a decade would make it difficult to return to profitability next year.
The company on Wednesday announced a host of cost-cutting measures, including a 10 percent workforce reduction, aimed at helping it weather a rapid drop in revenue.
Micron also projected a steep sales decline and a wider loss than analysts had estimated for the current quarter.
Photo: Reuters
The industry is experiencing its worst imbalance between supply and demand in 13 years, Micron chief executive officer Sanjay Mehrotra said.
Inventory should peak in the current period, then decline, he said.
Customers would move to more healthy inventory levels by about the middle of next year, and the chipmaker’s revenue would improve in the second half of the year, Mehrotra said.
“Profitability will be challenged throughout 2023 because of the oversupply that exists in the industry,” he said in an interview. “The rate and pace of the recovery in terms of profitability depends on how fast supply is brought into line.”
Mehrotra said a unique convergence of circumstances — the war in Ukraine, a surge in inflation, COVID-19 and supply disruptions — has thrust the memorychip industry into a repeat of past cycles when prices plummeted and wiped out profits. Micron has responded aggressively to try to quickly get through the difficult period.
Once the downturn is over, the industry would resume profitable growth helped by demand for artificial intelligence computing and automation of various industries, he said.
Micron, which last month said that it was cutting production by about 20 percent, is cutting its budget for new plants and equipment, and now expects to spend from US$7 billion to US$7.5 billion for the fiscal year, a decline from an earlier target of as much as US$12 billion.
The company is slowing the introduction of more advanced manufacturing techniques and predicts that spending on new production will fall throughout the industry.
Micron’s pledge to reduce output from its factories and slow expansion projects would not ease the glut of chips available unless rivals, including Samsung Electronics Co and SK Hynix Inc, follow suit. That step can help support prices, but comes with the penalty of running expensive plants at less than full capacity, something that can weigh heavily on profitability.
In addition to its planned workforce reductions, the company has suspended share repurchases, is cutting executive salaries and would skip company-wide bonus payments, executives said on a conference call after its results were released.
Micron said sales would be about US$3.8 billion in the fiscal second quarter. That compares with analysts’ average estimate of US$3.88 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
The company projected a loss of about US$0.62 a share, excluding certain items, in the period ending in February, compared with a loss of US$0.29 expected by analysts.
In the three months ended Dec. 1, Micron’s revenue declined 47 percent to US$4.09 billion. The company had a loss of US$0.04 a share, excluding certain items. That compares with an average estimate of a loss of US$0.01 a share on sales of US$4.13 billion.
Micron’s shares declined about 2 percent in extended trading after closing at US$51.19 in New York.
The stock has dropped 45 percent this year, a worst decline than most chip-related equities. The Philadelphia Stock Exchange Semiconductor Index is down 33 percent this year.
‘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