ÿ<Picture>(UPDATE) South Korean Memory Chip Makers Denounce U.S. Dumping
Ruling
Dow Jones Online News, Thursday, March 05, 1998 at 10:57
SEOUL, South Korea -(Dow Jones)- South Korean computer memory-chip
makers disputed a preliminary U.S. ruling that they have been unfairly
selling their products below cost, the Associated Press reported
Thursday.
"We have never dumped in the U.S. market, so we cannot accept the
decision," Hyundai Electronic Industries Co., South Korea's No. 2 chip
maker, said in a statement.
Micron Technology Inc. (MU), a chip maker based in Boise, Idaho, has
asked the Commerce Department to investigate alleged dumping in the U.S.
by its South Korean competitors. On Wednesday, the department said in a
preliminary finding that two South Korean companies - Hyundai and LG
Semicon Co. - were selling their memory chips below their production
costs.
Commerce will make a final decision in June after reviewing South
Korean responses.
Washington is threatening to impose a 12.64% antidumping tariff on
DRAM, or dynamic random access memory, chips from Hyundai and a 7.61%
duty on products from LG Semicon Co.
The U.S. is the world's largest computer chip market. Hyundai and LG
Semicon sell about 30% of their DRAM chips - worth $1 billion - in the
U.S. each year. The two firms have been cited for alleged dumping every
year since 1993, but each time have been cleared of the charge. Last
July, the Seoul government filed a complaint with the World Trade
Organization, demanding that the U.S. stop its annual investigation.
Computer memory chips are South Korea's key export item. The country
accounted for 34% of the world's $20.9 billion DRAM market last year.
Micron and other U.S. chip makers have accused their South Korean
competitors of creating a global oversupply. As a result, the price of
DRAM chips - which allow computers and other electronic devices to store
data for quick retrieval - has dropped 80% in the past year, industry
officials say.
Micron has been prominent in pushing allegations against foreign
competitors, first in Japan and then South Korea, of violating so-called
antidumping laws by selling chips below manufacturing cost.
It has also been vocal in its opposition to the bailout of South
Korea by the International Monetary Fund, arguing that any U.S. money
that goes to the South Korean companies would effectively reward them
for producing too many chips and helping to trigger the price plunge
that has hurt Micron and other memory-chip makers.
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