ProMOS Technologies Inc, Taiwan's No.3 DRAM chip maker, said it is considering selling some machinery in its 12-inch facilities and disposing shares, freeing up cash to help it through a sharp industry downturn.
Personal computer sales have stalled, causing memory chip prices to plunge and pushing ProMOS and other larger rivals in Asia into the red for several quarters.
"Output will decline by more than our previous estimate because PC DRAM prices keep falling," ProMOS Vice President Ben Tseng told Reuters by telephone.
ProMOS,which makes dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chips used mainly in personal computers, announced the plan after its board meeting on Tuesday.
The company said earlier in the day that its fourth-quarter output would fall more than its October estimate of a 10-15 percent drop due to tumbling computer chip prices.
ProMOS shares closed down 2.4 percent on Tuesday, against the main TAIEX's 1.2 percent rise.
In a recent report, Primasia said ProMOS, which had cash of about T$2.9 billion ($86.5 million) as of the end of September, could face increasing risk of default unless it can raise additional funds early next year.
Taiwan's government has loosened loan and payment conditions to help cash-strapped companies and is also trying to engineer some mergers among local DRAM makers, but analysts say that could be hindered by the fact that local makers use different technologies from foreign partners.
($1=T$33.5)

By: DocMemory
Copyright © 2023 CST, Inc. All Rights Reserved