Chang-Gyu Hwang, president of the semiconductor business of Samsung Electronics, is scheduled to arrive in Taiwan on September 12 for a three-day visit, during which he will visit major PC and memory module makers in order to strengthen partnerships and to obtain information needed to plan the company's NAND flash capacity for 2008, according to industry sources.

It is the first time that Hwang has visited Taiwan since Samsung's outage issue in August. The memory market has been volatile lately, with demand for DRAM weak and prices falling. NAND flash shortage is also easing, with prices also starting to decline amid weaker-than-expected demand.

The sources indicated that Samsung is trying to help Taiwan makers expand their share in the NAND flash market so as to reduce the market's over-dependence on Apple. Samsung is trying to prevent a repeat of previous NAND flash oversupply and price slumps sparked by decreased orders from Apple, the sources added.

Apple's demand for NAND flash for its latest stock build-up has peaked and orders from the iPod vendor are starting to decline in September, the sources said.

The possibility of NAND flash oversupply may increase with 50nm production starting to ramp up in the fourth quarter. Therefore, the sources said, Samsung is planning well ahead for next year's NAND flash capacity in order to maintain the health of the market.

By: DocMemory
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