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Politics : Formerly About Applied Materials -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Proud_Infidel who wrote (41583)	1/18/2001 1:00:31 PM
From: Proud_Infidel	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 70976

Chipmakers See Brighter Prospects on DRAM Spot Price Pick-Up January 18, 2001 (TAIPEI) -- Asia's DRAM spot prices saw a one-week rise after bottoming out recently, and the gap between DRAM spot prices in Asia and North America has narrowed significantly. The rebound of the Asian chip price, fuelled by the recovery in China and Middle East area, provides a signal that heralds an encouraging future for Taiwanese chipmakers which suffered heavy blow due to the retrenchment in the DRAM industry last year. The recent rebound of Micron Technology Inc. stocks has also given Taiwanese chipmakers a dose of good news. An analyst predicted that several leading Taiwanese chipmakers, including Mosel Vitelic Inc. and Winbond Electronics Corp., would see their stock prices pick up if Micron stock managed to sustain its overdue rebound. According to the IC market's price offering in Asia, the 64Mb DRAM spot price has risen for seven straight sessions to between US$2.62 and US$2.75, and 128Mb DRAM spot price has reached US$5.3 to US$5.6. Separately, the spot prices of 64Mb and 128Mb DRAM in the American IC Exchange (AICE) were sluggish at US$2.7 and US$5.8 respectively, due to lackluster trade during the holiday season. Nanya Technology Corp. and Powerchip Semiconductor Corp. revealed at a recent press conference meeting that both companies would convert to the 0.175-micron chip manufacturing process in 2001. Based on their forecast shipment volumes for the year, and given a unit sales cost of US$2.5 for chips manufactured with the 0.175-micron process, these two companies should be able to avoid a loss this year. Brighter prospects also lie in store for their smaller rivals Promos Technology Inc. and Winbond, if the DRAM spot price recovers as expected, the analyst said. (Commercial Times, Taiwan) Subject 50522