Hynix Semiconductor Says
It May Cut Chip Production
Dow Jones Newswires
July 4, 2001
SEOUL, South Korea -- With the global semiconductor industry facing its worst-ever year amid falling chip prices, Hynix Semiconductor Inc. said it plans to strongly consider reducing production of dynamic random-access memory chips.
The company has yet to decide on details such as the timing, scale and method of output cuts, said a Hynix spokesman, who declined to be named.
Chief Executive Park Chong Sup was quoted by the Digital Times as saying that the company has no option but to cut production in order to overcome current difficulties.
The local technology newspaper speculated that Hynix could cut chip output during the summer holiday season, which starts late this month.
Hynix is the world's third-largest DRAM producer following Samsung Electronics Co. and Micron Technology Inc.
It produces 100 million chips per month based on 64 megabyte units, of which 64MB and 128MB make up 30% and 58%, respectively, the Digital Times said.
The Hynix spokesman said 128MB chips make up more than half its DRAM production, but declined to disclose further details on the company's output.
The 128MB chips are trading at an average of $1.94 each while the 64MB chips trade at $1 each, according to the DRAM trading venue www.dramexchange.com.
Samsung Electronics, meanwhile, said it has no plans to reduce production. A spokesman said that unlike Hynix, which he said depends highly on 64MB and 128MB chips, "an output cut is unnecessary for us because we have a more diverse production portfolio."
Samsung Electronics can focus on 256MB and high-performance Rambus chips when 64MB and 128MB chips aren't competitive, the spokesman said.
Industry monitor Gartner Dataquest recently forecast that the global revenue of the DRAM industry could plunge 55.5% this year, greater than the 1985 market crash when the industry saw a 55.1% decline. |
