Samsung Electronics executive says chips operations have hit bottom
Last Update: 6:08 AM ET May 26, 2006
SEOUL (MarketWatch) -- South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co.'s (005930.SE) semiconductor operations hit the bottom in May and will improve from the third quarter, said a senior company executive Friday.
"A rising demand for notebook computers will help boost our overall sales. NAND flash memory chips are gaining further ground in the semiconductor market," Hwang Chang-Gyu, who is chief executive of Samsung Electronics's semiconductor business, said during the Seoul Digital Forum 2006.
Hwang said demand for flash memory chips will start to rise and memory chip prices will stabilize in the second quarter.
"That's because the current hard disk drive, or HDD, is being replaced with solid state disk, or SSD, that Samsung released early this week. An increasing number of laptop computers will use SSD," Hwang said.
Earlier this week, Samsung projected the SSD market will reach $500 million globally this year. HDD and SSD, which use flash memory chips, are mainly used in notebook computers.
He also said that demand for DRAM chips began to stabilize from early this year and that notebook computer sales are expected to start rising in the second half of this year.
He declined to give any of specific figures relating to Samsung's second-quarter results, saying they will be in line with market expectations.
-Edited by Marissa Chew
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