Micron to Raise 64-MB DRAM Output 67% by Year End, Nikkei Says
Tokyo, July 17 (Bloomberg) -- Micron Technology Inc., the biggest U.S. maker of computer memory chips, will increase its monthly output of 64-megabit dynamic random-access memory chips by as much as 67 percent by the end of this year, the company's chief executive told the Nihon Keizai newspaper.
Micron, which last month disappointed analysts by posting its fifth loss in six quarters, will increase production of the industry-standard chips to more than 50 million units a month from current levels of between 35 million and 30 million monthly, said CEO Steve Appleton, according to the business daily.
The Boise, Idaho-based company is targeting a larger share of DRAM sales in markets including Japan, where it first secured a foothold in September 1998, acquiring a 25 percent stake in KMT Semiconductor, a chipmaking joint venture with Kobe Steel Ltd.
KMT last month said it will overtake NEC Corp. by September as Japan's largest producer of DRAMs. By year's end, it plans to turn out 20 million DRAMs a month, twice as many as NEC is currently making.
Micron is increasing production while Japan's five largest chipmakers -- NEC, Toshiba Corp., Hitachi Ltd., Fujitsu Ltd. and Mitsubishi Electric Corp. -- are cutting DRAM output after running up losses in a global market crippled by chronic oversupply.
Micron is seeking to remain profitable in that market by improving yields -- the proportion of perfect chips it can make from firing up a batch of silicon wafers -- and reducing costs.
The company, which has been dogged by declining memory chip prices for two years, posted a loss of $27.7 million for the quarter ended June 3. While raising production 17 percent, it said prices for 64-bit DRAMs fell 27 percent in the third quarter from the second.
In Japan, more than half of KMT's output by year's end will take the form of 128-megabit DRAMs, higher-density chips that command a higher price than the more commonly used 64-megabit chips and are set to become the new industry standard in the next generation of personal computers.
The global memory-chip market, which declined 19 percent in 1997 and 21 percent last year, will make a comeback by increasing 19 percent this year as more consumers in Japan and elsewhere buy PCs to get on the Internet, the Semiconductor Industry Association forecast last month.
Separately, Micron denied on its Internet site an analyst's report issued June 24 by Dresdner Kleinwort Benson (Asia) Ltd. in Tokyo claiming a design defect prevented it from shipping certain 64-megabit chips. |
