Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Taiwan's government said on Tuesday local DRAM chip makers seeking to tap state funds to help the ailing sector would have to include proposals on developing technology with foreign firms and as well as strategies such as mergers and acquisitions.
The firms have to submit their proposals to the government in the next three months, a statement said.
Taiwan's government in April announced the formation of Taiwan Memory Company (TMC) to help rescue the island's struggling DRAM sector to compete with global giants Samsung (005930.KS) and Hynix (000660.KS) of South Korea. [ID:nTP104915]
The island's national development fund has also said recently it could consider injecting funds into the DRAM sector if manufacturers could map out a new restructuring platform or proposals that helped the whole memory chip sector, but did not give any details.
The government did not give any estimated investment figures on Tuesday. TMC said in April it had sought up to T$30 billion in state funds, while the economics ministry said in June that TMC would seek less than T$10 billion. [ID:nTP99146]
Taiwan's dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chip makers have all been losing money for most of the past year in a global downturn due to oversupply, while demand for chips slump in the face of the global economic crisis.
The Tuesday statement said the companies' plans should also include the joint development of next-generation technologies between foreign and Taiwan firms, and other strategies to help improve corporate structure, including mergers or acquisitions.
The economics ministry said in the statement that new and existing DRAM makers in Taiwan seeking government investments in support of their plans should guarantee they could get access to intellectual property rights of foreign companies.
Earlier this month, Nanya Technology (2408.TW) and Inotera (3474.TW), its chip joint venture with U.S. Micron (MU.N), said they were seeking state funds of up to T$30 billion to help them develop new technologies. [ID:nTP350056]
Nanya, Inotera and Micron will work more closely in the future, including developing new chips that have fatter margins and migrating to more advanced process technology to further cut costs and boost efficiency. [ID:nTP335629]
Eric Tang, a spokesman of Powerchip Semiconductor Corp (5346.TWO), Taiwan's biggest DRAM maker, said on Tuesday his company would consider presenting its own proposal but declined to give other details.
Tang's announcement came after the Taipei stock market closed on Tuesday. Powerchip shares jumped 4 percent and Nanya shares rose 1.6 percent, outpacing the main TAIEX's 0.2 percent gain. (Reporting by Baker Li, Editing by Valerie Lee)
By: DocMemory
Copyright © 2023 CST, Inc. All Rights Reserved
|
