Chip exports forecast to grow 15.8% this year
The Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy said yesterday that it expects Korean semiconductor exports to increase 15.8 percent this year to $23.5 billion thanks to an increase in demand.
A global economic recovery, increase in demand for low-priced personal computers and an increase in Internet usage and on-line stock trading are expected to boost demand for semiconductors this year, the commerce ministry said.
In 1999, exports of semiconductors rose 19.4 percent on year to $20.3 billion, the ministry said in a report. Korea's chip exports reached a peak in 1995 with $22.1 billion and then fell to $17.8 billion in 1996 and $17 billion in 1998, before rebounding last year.
Meanwhile, market analysts expected DRAM prices to steadily fall in the first half of the year.
They said the price of 8M x 8 PC 100 synchronous DRAMs, the current market mainstay, has been falling $0.1 a day on average since the turn of the year, recording $7.32-$7.76 per unit on the spot market Jan. 28. In the second half of last year, they traded at $11-12 a unit.
In parallel with the price drop on the spot market, major chip manufacturers have lowered the prices of their long-term supplies to big PC manufacturers to $7.7-$9 per unit, they said.
An official of Samsung Electronics said every year, chip prices tend to fall in the first quarter because of a slack demand.
An official of TriGem Computer said the price fall should be seen as a process of returning to a normal price level from the unusually high level in the wake of the earthquake in Taiwan last year.
Updated: 02/02/2000 |
