Is Micron cutting DRAM prices to lower inventory?
A service of Semiconductor Business News, CMP Media Inc.
Story posted 1:30 p.m. EST/10:30 a.m., PST, 2/23/99
By Jack Robertson
WASHINGTON -- Financial analysts this week were upgrading their estimates for better-than-expected fiscal second-quarter results at the very moment that some DRAM competitors were complaining that Micron Technology Inc. was cutting prices to unload inventory. Micron officials declined to comment on the complaints.
However, the Boise, Idaho, memory maker has privately told analysts that production shot up at a 50% bit-growth rate in the company's last fiscal quarter, ended Feb. 28, compared to the previous three-month period. Sources have speculated that Micron was able to clear a logjam in its DRAM testing operations, which resulted in a flood of chips being released on the market. Micron also has accelerated its die shrinks, which is resulting in more chips being produced on a wafer.
Micron did claim it will be back to a more regular production ramp in the current fiscal quarter, with a projected 20% bit-growth increase.
The spot market and reported OEM contract prices for 64-megabit DRAMs softened last week as analysts said supplies increased from most major suppliers, not just from Micron. South Korea's Big Three DRAM producers have been ramping up production sharply (see story in the Feb. 15 publication of SBN).
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