Nanya Technology Corp., Taiwan's biggest computer-memory chipmaker, plans to raise prices 20 percent next month because of rising demand, Vice President Pai Pei-Lin said. The company increased prices by 20 percent this month from September, after boosting them 35 percent in the third quarter from the preceding three months, Pai said. Taoyuan-based Nanya yesterday reported its smallest loss in eight quarters.

Nanya joins Elpida Memory Inc. in reporting narrowing losses after industry-wide output cuts eased oversupply and helped memory chip prices to more than triple this year. Dynamic-random-access memory, or DRAM, sales will probably climb 21 percent to US$22.4 billion in 2010, the first gain in four years, Keon Han, a Morgan Stanley analyst, wrote in a Sept. 21 report.

Nanya's third-quarter net loss narrowed 56 percent to NT$3.89 billion from a year earlier, the company said. That compared with the NT$4.35 billion median deficit of six analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

The company plans to increase capital spending to NT$19 billion in 2010 from NT$13 billion this year, Pai said. The chipmaker intends on raising NT$18 billion from syndicated bank loans next month, he said.

The shares rose 0.2 percent to close at NT$21.70 in Taipei before the company reported results. The island's benchmark Taiex index dropped 0.7 percent.

Separately, Inotera Memories Inc., Nanya's venture with Micron Technology Inc., posted a net loss of NT$2.52 billion, the company said in a statement yesterday. Inotera plans to raise NT$20 billion in a syndicated loan, and is budgeting NT$45 billion in capital spending next year, President Charles Kau said.

Nanya and Inotera said yesterday they won't seek government investment after chip prices more than tripled this year.

The price of the benchmark 1 gigabit DRAM has surged 216 percent in 2009, after tumbling 65 percent to a record in 2008, according to Taipei-based Dramexchange Technology Inc., Asia's biggest spot market for semiconductors.

By: DocMemory
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