Monday, January 26, 2004
Micron Technology Inc. said it anticipates more than 50 percent of its revenue would be generated in southeast Asia within a few years with China, Hong Kong and Japan accounting for a significant portion of the increase.
In response to the growing role of Asia within the electronics industry, Micron has begun adding workers in the region and increasing efforts to increase its presence in Japan, according to Mike Sadler, vice president of worldwide sales, during a presentation at the company's Winter Analysts Conference.
About one-third of Micron's revenue came from Asia in 2003, up from 12 percent in 1998. Japan's share rose to 9 percent last year, up from zero five years ago while China and Hong Kong now account for 11 percent versus 2 percent in 1998.
The DRAM supplier offered a bullish outlook for the memory market this year as the market builds on a second-half 2003 sales surge to post a double-digit increase in unit shipment and content per PC.
Sadler said the company expects DRAM unit shipments would increase as much as 18 percent in 2004, on top of an 11 percent rise in the prior year while content growth would be in the range of 30 to 50 percent driven by a resurgence in the corporate market.
Said Sadler, "2003 was a good year for memory content due to [Microsoft] Windows XP deployment, broadband demand and strong consumer PC sales but we are also beginning to see an increase from the business market."
Another strong growth area for memory suppliers is the wireless handset market where a combination of huge volume — more than 500 million units per year #151; and rising memory content, which Sadler puts at 16 Mb per phone today, is raising optimism in the industry.
"You've got memory growth, camera phone growth and high number," Sadler said. "Cellphones will undoubtedly be the key growth in future."
In his own presentation at the conference, Bill Stover, Micron's vice president and chief financial officer, said the company's capital expenditure would increase in 2004 to a range of $1.3 billion to $1.6 billion from approximately $1.1 billion in 2003.
Stover estimated total global DRAM capital expenditures rose to $6 billion in 2003 from $5 billion in 2002. Capital expenditure in the industry has fallen from as high as $20 billion 1996 and $9 billion at the height of the last industry expansion in 2000.
By: DocMemory
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