DRAM Manufacturer Suffer Revenue Decline
DRAM market shows sign of weakness, not only the known manufacturer Micron suffers revenue decline, but the collective slip of operating income also happens on those relatively small manufacturers, according to IHS iSuppli DRAM market briefing.
On 27th, September, the DRAM So ¬ lutions Group of the US Micron declared a 9% decrease of the shipments for the fourth quarter. Despite the unchangeable price, profit down by 9.7%, reaching $677 million.
The revenue data of five Taiwan DRAM suppliers shows not only Micron faces quarterly loss. According to Taiwan DRAM industry data, there is a larger drop of the overall operating income in the third quarter for Taiwan manufacturers, the total takeover falling to 25 billion NT (about $850 million) from 29 billion NT, with decline rate of 14%.
These Taiwan manufacturers have smaller size than the US Micron that ranks the fourth of the overall DRAM industry; Samsung Electronics of South Korea and SK Hynix Semiconductor rank the first and the second respectively; Japanese Elpida, the third. These Taiwan DRAM manufacturers include Nanya Technology, Inotera, ProMOS, Winbond Electronics and Etron.
Among these Taiwan manufacturers, Nanya Technology suffers the highest decline of operating income. In July, Nanya’s revenue down by 21%, August drops 18%, reaching a total decline of 38% comparing with 3.4 billion revenues in May ($120 million). The third quarter of calendar year is likely problematic for Nanya, the largest DRAM manufacturer in Taiwan with ranking the fifth.
Micron thinks the main reason leading to DRAM turnover decline is PC market malaise; especially the weak PC sales suppress DRAM demand, beating DRAM price. PC has always been the largest application era of DRAM, but the poor global economic situation as well as consumers’ increasing attachment to the more- dexterous products such as smartphone and tablet PC all result in the continuous slip of PC sales. Meanwhile, the ultrabook released by Intel didn’t achieve good selling as expected.
Based on the roughly low PC shipments estimate, the situation of DRAM market in the next quarter may maintain weak situation. But in long-term, PC shipments expect to grow, bringing hope to DRAM manufacturer, and the prospect will improve.
Even so, expectations for the future should be restraint. Though DRAM is still the absolute key components in electronic industry, DRAM industry is established around PC. Due to PC’s lower position in the consumers’ mind than before, so DRAM industry should adjust production to adapt to the change. If not do so, DRAM would continue its oversupply, further blow the whole industry.