LG Semicon joining the crowd....
LG Semicon shut down its production line for five days, between July
1-5, in an effort to stabilize the semiconductor price. Samsung
Electronics and Hyundai Electronics Industries are also planning to
curtail their production of semiconductors at the end of this month.
Samsung and Hyundai had halted their production of semiconductor chips
for a week last month in vein effort to maintain adequate semiconductor
prices.
LG Semicon temporarily closed its factories in Chungju and Kumi and
stopped its assembly lines between July 1-5. An official from LG
Semicon said, "We have decided to suspend our production line
temporarily, because, with the current price of DRAM, it is simply
unprofitable."
LG Semicon expects to reduce its July production volume of 64-megabit
DRAM to 5 million and 16-megabit DRAM to 16 million.
An industry source said, "Due to the overinvestment during the last two
or three years, 64-megabit DRAMs are still oversupplied by 20-30
percent." Since the production curtailment last month, 64-megabit DRAM
chips are being traded at 8-9 dollars apiece, up 0.2-0.5 dollars from
the previously depreciated price. However, it is still below cost and
further production cut is inevitable, the source added.
Domestic semiconductor manufacturers occupy 35 percent of world DRAM
market share. Comparably, Japanese chip makers account for 35 percent
of the world market share while Taiwanese and US chip makers combinedly
account for 25 percent of market share. |
