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Technology Stocks : Applied Materials No-Politics Thread (AMAT) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Proud_Infidel who wrote (162)	10/30/2001 12:07:30 PM
From: Proud_Infidel	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 25522

Winbond to close fab, shift focus to specialty DRAM By Mike Clendenin EE Times (10/30/01 10:51 a.m. EST) TAIPEI, Taiwan — Winbond Electronics Corp., Taiwan's top DRAM maker, said it would close a 5-inch wafer fabrication facility that produces mainly consumer chips by the end of 2002. The company also said it will stop development of 0.11-micron stacked DRAM technology and focus R&D on specialty DRAM markets and flash memory products. The closure of the fab, combined with salary cuts for executives and mandatory vacations for staff, should save the company about $58 million next year, Winbond said in a statement. The company also noted that a "reduction in work force" was expected, but a spokesman could not provide details. Winbond said it stopped advanced process development because its technology partnership with Toshiba Corp. collapsed after the Japanese company decided to sell or merge its DRAM division, possibly to Infineon Technologies AG. The loss of the partnership was a big blow to Winbond, which sold a considerable amount of its commodity DRAM to Toshiba. A spokesman said the company is in talks with another possible partner. No details were available, but the spokesman said a deal should be reached soon. Another uncertainty hanging over Winbond is when it will move forward with its 12-inch wafer fab. The company froze the project in the spring. Analysts said Winbond will lag other local competitors in the commodity DRAM market when the downturn ends because it has delayed the construction of the advanced wafer facility. A decision on the fab's future "depends on the market status and whether we have a new partner or not," the spokesman said. Winbond, like all DRAM makers, has been hard hit by a sharp decline in prices. During the past year, the spot price for industry standard 128-Mbit DRAMs has fallen by more than 90 percent, to just under $1 a chip. On Tuesday (Oct. 30), Winbond announced after-tax losses through September of $189 million. Its main competitors in Taiwan are also struggling, with Powerchip Semiconductor Corp. expecting a full-year loss of $217 million and ProMOS Technologies Inc. expecting a $188 million loss. Because an upturn in DRAM pricing isn't expected till at least the second half of 2002, Winbond is trying to phase out its commodity DRAM production at its 8-inch wafer fab. By the end of next year, Winbond hopes to move entirely into flash memory production as well as specialty DRAM products, such as low-power DRAM for mobile devices or high-speed DRAM for graphics applications. The company already devotes roughly half of its total capacity to logic chip production and is trying to increase revenues from that side of its business.