S.Korea's Hynix says chip price slump will hit Q4 profit Seoul (AFP) Dec 21, 2010 South Korea's Hynix Semiconductor says it expects computer memory-chip prices to fall further early next year and hit its fourth-quarter results this year. "Chip prices remained strong until the first half of this year, but they dropped sharply, especially during the fourth quarter," chief executive O.C. Kwon told The Wall Street Journal in an interview. "Due to the sharper than expected fall, a considerable decline in both our sales and profit is inevitable in the fourth quarter." Hynix, the world's second-largest memory chipmaker, supplies chips known as dynamic random access memory (DRAM) to Hewlett-Packard and other major computer makers. It also makes NAND flash-memory chips -- those used to store data in gadgets even when power is switched off -- to Apple and Nokia. Over the past six months, the average spot price of the most widely used DRAM chip has more than halved to 1.95 dollars each, according to DRAMeXchange, an online chip clearing house based in Taiwan. Hynix announced a record net profit in the third quarter of 1.06 trillion won (916.9 million dollars) and a 53 percent rise in revenue to 3.25 trillion won. Next year, Kwon said it targets revenue of more than 10 trillion won but he cautioned that the strong won might depress earnings. Kwon said chip prices could start bottoming out as early as the first quarter, as demand starts to pick up amid lower component prices and a continuing recovery in the global economy. He said he expects global chip demand and supply to balance out in the second half of next year.
Share This Article With Planet Earth
Related Links Computer Chip Architecture, Technology and Manufacture Nano Technology News From SpaceMart.com
Making Wafers Faster By Making Features Smaller Washington DC (SPX) Dec 17, 2010 The manufacturing of semiconductor wafers used in all types of electronics involves etching small features onto a wafer with lasers, a process that is ultimately limited by the wavelength of the light itself. The semiconductor industry is rapidly approaching this fundamental limit for increasing the speed of the microchip. The development of a new intense 13.5-nm (extreme ultraviolet or EU ... read more |
|
The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2010 - SpaceDaily. AFP and UPI Wire Stories are copyright Agence France-Presse and United Press International. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by SpaceDaily on any Web page published or hosted by SpaceDaily. Privacy Statement |