Wednesday, January 25, 2006
Elpida Memory Inc. returned to the black in its December-ended fiscal third quarter. Sales for the quarter came in at ¥59 billion (about $513 million). Operating profit was ¥645 million (about $5.6 million).
"The price of 512-Mbit double-data-rate DRAMs dropped sharply, by 25 percent, during the quarter, which had a big impact on profit," said Elpida chief operating officer Shuichi Otsuka. Spot prices slid as a shortage of PC chip sets left companies with DRAMs on the shelf, Otsuka said.
Chipset supply is recovering, and some memory vendors are shifting production from DRAMs to NAND flash memories, bringing DRAM supply and demand back into balance. The company reported that prices had bounced back above the $5 level as of Jan. 22.
Output from a newly opened 300-mm line has aided the company's return to profitability, "giving us cost competitiveness," Otsuka said. Operations at the E300 Area 2 fab began in October and brought Elpida's total 300-mm capacity to 50,000 wafers a month by December. Full operation at the new fab by the end of this month is expected to bring total monthly 300-mm production to 54,000 wafers.
By: DocMemory
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