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

To: DJBEINO who wrote (28543)	2/17/1998 4:36:00 PM
From: yousef hashmi	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 53903

A service of Semiconductor Business News, CMP Media Inc. Story posted at 2:15 p.m. EST/11:15 a.m. PST, 2/17/98 Antidumping duties imposed on Asian SRAM makers By Mark LaPedus TAIPEI, TAIWAN -- The U.S. Department of Commerce rendered a final verdict in the year-old SRAM dumping case late last week, assessing lofty duties of up 113.85% on several memory suppliers based in Taiwan and two in South Korea. Two U.S. SRAM suppliers -- Alliance Semiconductor Inc. and Integrated Silicon Solutions Inc. (ISSI) -- were assessed antidumping duties of 50.58% and 7.59%, respectively, according to local sources. Reportedly escaping without duties imposed was the world's largest SRAM supplier, South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. Also escaping without penalties were Taiwan's PC motherboard makers, which were cited in a recent petition filed by Micron Technology Inc. Micron itself originally filed a petition with the International Trade Commission in February, 1997, accusing the companies of illgally dumping SRAMs in the U.S. market in 1996. Last September, the Department of Commerce announced a preliminary decision in the SRAM dumping case by assessing duties of up to 113.85% against 19 Taiwan and three South Korean producers. In that ruling, Samsung was assessed antidumping duties of a mere 1.59%, but Samsung was not cited for any duties in the final verdict. Other suppliers of SRAM -- and other products -- were not so lucky. Strangely, at least manufacturers from Taiwan that do not sell SRAM were assessed with 113.85% duties in the final verdict: Advanced Microelectronics Products Inc. (AMPI), Best Integrated Technology Inc., and Texas Instruments-Acer Inc. As in the preliminary ruling, TI-Acer officials re-iterated that the Hsinchu-based companies makes DRAMs--not SRAMs, and that it never received a questionnaire from the Department of Commerce about the antidumping case in the first place. Like TI-Acer, Hsinchu-based AMPI said it does not make SRAMs. Meanwhile, Best, an independent IC test house, has been acquired by Hsinchu-based United Test Center. In the preliminiary ruling, Taiwan's United Microelectronics Corp. (UMC) and Winbond Electronics Corp. were assessed with 63.36% and 94.1% antidumping duties, respectively. In the final verdict, however, UMC and Winbond were hit with increased duties of 93.87% and 102.88%, respectively. Hsinchu-based Winbond, Taiwan's largest SRAM maker, claims the company is still debating with the Department of Commerce about the case. A Winbond spokesman claims the International Trade Commission will not execute the ruling for another 45 days, giving the Taiwan company a chance to have its duties lowered by the U.S. government agency. "We are trying to argue that our cost structure is lower [than that of U.S. SRAM makers]," the Winbond spokesman said. South Korea's Hyundai and LG Semicon were hit with 3.38% and 55.36% duties in the preliminary ruling. In the final ruling, Hyundai was assessed with a 5.08% duty, while LG's was reportedly unchanged. Another five or more Taiwan-based companies were lumped into a catch-all catagory of "all others," and were given a 41.30% penalty tariff.