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Technology Stocks : Micron Only Forum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Fabeyes who wrote (46446)	6/20/1999 1:28:00 AM
From: shrinks	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 53903

Fabeye's, Looks like the Korean's are think that in this current bloodbath that they can outlast Micron, if they believe this and DRAM prices stay low they will be standing when Micron is being auctioned off, piece by piece.... Continuing Fall in DRAM Prices Threatens Korea's Surplus Goal 06/18(±Ý) 18:14 The continuing drop in the international prices of dynamic random access memory(DRAM) chips is putting a big question mark on whether Korea will be able to realize its trade surplus goal of $25 billion. The appreciation of the Korean won since early this year has already caused concern among exporters and the unexpectedly rapid drop in DRAM prices is only making matters worse. According to industry sources, such concerns arise from the fact that the average price of 64-megabit DRAM chips were trading at under $5 at the end of last month and showing no sign of recovery. The price compares to the $9.7 in December of last year and calculations by DRAM producers show that a $1 drop in the price of 16M units results in a loss of $750 million in export value. ''The reality is that semiconductors, mostly DRAMs, account for 13 percent of all Korean exports and any change in the market has an overall impact on Korea's trade account,'' one analyst said. How drastic has the drop in prices been? The 64M chips were trading at $18 at the beginning of last year, falling to $7.8 in June before Korean and Japanese chipmakers decided to cut production. This immediately caused prices to rebound on the international market in the second half of last year and they remained steady until February before beginning to spiral down again. The 64M chips were trading at $7.65 on international spot markets in March, $6.32 in April and $4.99 at the end of last month. The drop is ascribed mainly to competitive pricing by Taiwanese and U.S. makers. ''For now, we are not too concerned since most of our sales are done under long-term contracts. However, in the long run, spot market prices will affect long-term contracts,'' said one Samsung Electronics official. He went on to say that the global semiconductor industry, particularly the memory chip sector, is undergoing restructuring and it remains to be seen how long Taiwanese and American producers can sustain their viability. The official said, ''We cannot disclose what our break-even point is but it is a well-known fact that it is much lower than most of our competitors. We have yieldsthat are some of the highest in the market.'' No matter how high the yields of Korean chipmakers are, falling prices cannot be good news and latest figures indicate that their combined exports of $9.6 billion in the first half are up only 6 percent over the same period of last year, the Korea Development Bank said. jakenho@koreatimes.co.kr