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

To: etchmeister who wrote (15997)	9/17/2005 12:16:45 AM
From: etchmeister	Respond to of 25522

Micron foresees stable chip prices Firm expects better gross margins, says fourth-quarter earnings will be seen as 'very positive.' September 9, 2005: 9:08 AM EDT Great Deals on Memory Chips 4AllMemory.com. We guarantee to match compatible RAM to your specific computer.... www.4allmemory.com PC and Flash Memory - Memory Chips Use our memory selector to determine the exact 100% guaranteed compatible... www.memorysuppliers.com OCZ Technology Memory Chips Performance memory manufactuer, PC2100 - PC4000 DDR, PC1200 Rimms, Heatsinks and... www.ocztechnology.com Pc133 SDRAM Memory Sale 128MB $27 256MB $38, 512MB $83. Lifetime warranty, 30 day money back, Same day shipping,... allmemoryupgrades.com SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Micron Technology Inc., the world's third-largest manufacturer of memory chips, said Friday computer memory prices would remain stable or rise further this year and forecast much better gross margins ahead. In an interview, Chief Executive Steve Appleton also said he had not yet seen any impact on consumer spending from record-high oil prices, but was concerned demand in the upcoming Christmas quarter could be affected. The company also announced in a separate statement it is investing $250 million to expand its chip-testing and assembly operations in Singapore. "DRAM (dynamic random access memory) prices have come back a little bit. Although they are not that strong, we expect them to be stable or improve for the rest of the year," Appleton said. He said that stable-to-higher DRAM prices were due to seasonal back-to-school demand and a shift in production capacity from DRAM to NAND flash memory chips, which are used in popular digital cameras and music players. U.S.-based Micron (Research) derives about 60 percent of its sales from two types of DRAM chips -- DDR and DDR2 -- which are used almost entirely in personal computers. The company competes with industry leader South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. and Hynix Semiconductor Inc. German chip manufacturer Infineon Technologies AG is ranked fourth. The company slipped from the No. 2 position last year as it tried to diversify into new markets for image sensors and removable storage. Appleton said the market for camera image sensors had seen explosive demand. "That part of our business has done very well. Image sensors will continue to explode even if the cellphone market ended up being flat this year, as the penetration rate of that technology in cellphones is increasing regardless," he said. Improving gross margins Micron's gross margins will improve significantly in its fiscal fourth quarter ended August, as the company continued to diversify its product portfolio from low-end DRAM to higher-end DRAM, image sensor and NAND flash chips, Appleton said. Its gross margins plunged to 8.2 percent in the third quarter from 27 percent in the second quarter. "Our margins will improve greatly for the quarter. We think they will be at least stable or improving for the rest of the year," he added. In June, Micron reported its largest quarterly loss in two years, hit by a sharp fall in memory chip prices, as the industry entered a period marked by oversupply. It posted a net loss of $127.9 million, or 20 cents a share, for the fiscal third quarter, compared with a year-earlier profit of $90.9 million, or 13 cents. Sales fell to $1.05 billion from $1.12 billion a year ago. When asked whether Micron would return to profit in the fiscal fourth quarter ended August, Appleton was upbeat. "I am not going to pre-announce what our quarterly results were as we are in a quiet period, but I think people will think of them as being very positive," he said. Appleton said while surging energy prices have not had a noticeable effect on global semiconductor demand so far, they would ultimately have an impact. "Our Taiwan customers are very concerned about it. If we continue to see oil prices rising, it will dampen the Christmas season in terms of the consumers' ability to buy," he added. Research firm iSuppli Corp. trimmed its forecast for 2005 global chip sales Thursday, citing the rapid rise in fuel prices and excess production capacity. It is now forecasting 2.4 percent growth in chip revenues to $232.7 billion this year, down from an earlier estimate of a 5.9 percent rise. Oil prices rose to near $65 a barrel Friday but were down about 8 percent from a record $70.85 last week after Hurricane Katrina disrupted production and damaged some offshore rigs and pipelines. Micron stock has edged up 0.4 percent since the start of the year, underperforming a 10.5 percent gain in the Philadelphia Stock Exchange semiconductor index. From MU yahoo board