Japanese concede DRAM race to Micron, South Koreans
TOKYO -- Japan Inc. is downsizing, causing a number of embattled
semiconductor manufacturers here to reluctantly concede that they are losing
the DRAM production race.
In a series of interviews this week, most top chip executives agreed that
Micron Technology Inc. and the Big Three South Korean memory-IC
suppliers--Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., Hyundai Electronics Industries Co.
Ltd., and LG Semicon Co. Ltd.--will dominate the commodity DRAM
global market that was once Japan's sole domain.
Instead, chip makers here will seek lower-volume-but hopefully
higher-margin-value-added memory and logic products, according to
Yasuhiko Fukuda, deputy general manager of Mitsubishi Electric Corp.'s
semiconductor group.
"Only a few suppliers will be able to compete in commodity DRAMs against
Micron," Fukuda said. "They will easily have the capability to produce more
than 50 million 64-Mbit chips a month after they upgrade the [Texas
Instruments] fabs they acquired. Samsung will be able to produce 30 million
[64-Mbit] DRAMs a month, and the Hyundai-LG Semicon chip merger
another 30 million a month. Basically, we're entering a new era, where most
major players won't have the facilities to produce in these volumes."
...
semibiznews.com |
