Toshiba says flash memory shipments remain strong
yahoo.reuters.com
Tue Oct 5, 2004 02:25 AM ET
TOKYO, Oct 5 (Reuters) - Japanese chip maker Toshiba Corp (6502.T: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Tuesday its shipments of flash memories remained strong in the latest quarter, shrugging off a warning of lower sales by rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD.N: Quote, Profile, Research) .
AMD, based in Sunnyvale, California, citing softness in sales of its memory chips used in cell phones and other devices, said on Monday its quarterly revenue will be lower than forecast, prompting a sell-off of its shares.
But Toshiba, the world's second-largest flash memory maker after South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. (005930.KS: Quote, Profile, Research) , said it has not seen a slowdown in its sales and is enjoying broad demand for its memory chips including for photo phones, digital electronics devices and car navigation systems.
"The use of our NAND flash memory has been widening to various digital electronics devices and car navigation systems and there was no sign of weakness in demand for our flash memory chips in the quarter that ended in September," a spokesman said.
The NAND flash memory market, dominated by Toshiba and Samsung, has enjoyed explosive growth from demand for digital cameras, memory cards and MP3 music players and is seen to grow to $16 billion by 2008, according to research group Semico.
The NAND is a type of high-density flash memory chip that can write and erase information quickly. It is used to store data such as still and movie pictures.
On the back of solid demand, Toshiba's flash memory plant in central Japan has been running at full capacity including during the summer holiday season, the spokesman said.
To meet robust demand from digital camera and mobile phone markets, Toshiba decided in August to boost output capacity for flash memory chips at the plant by 7.5 percent by the first half of the business year starting next April.
Meanwhile, AMD and larger rival Intel Corp. (INTC.O: Quote, Profile, Research) , suppliers of the NOR flash memory chip, which is used predominantly in cell phones to store application software, have seen their sales of flash memory chips at less than forecast in the quarter.
Earlier this month, Intel lowered its forecast, blaming lower-than-expected demand for its microprocessors, flash memories and communications chips.
Shares in Toshiba ended down 1.17 percent at 421 yen, compared with a 0.02 percent drop in the benchmark Nikkei average .
Shares in peer Fujitsu Ltd (6702.T: Quote, Profile, Research) which holds a 40 percent stake in Spansion, a flash memory joint venture with AMD, fell 1.8 percent to 654 yen. |
