Nanya Technology and Inotera Memories have joined Elpida Memory, Powerchip Technology and Rexchip Electronics in cutting production amid slumping prices and a global economic downturn, according to industry sources.
Nanya has scaled down DRAM production by as much as 20%, the sources claimed. Nanya has also requested Inotera Memories, its DRAM-manufacturing joint venture with Micron Technolog, to cut back production 5-10%, the sources indicated.
Inotera's supplies to Micron, however, remain normal, the sources added. The JV runs two 12-inch fabs with a combined monthly capacity of 130,000 wafers, half of which are shipped to Micron and the other half to Micron.
Elpida has tentatively built up its "wafer bank" levels and delayed packaging and testing, rather than actually reducing its output, the sources observed.
Previous reports quoted industry sources as saying that Elpida would carry out a production cut of about 20% for the third quarter, and keep the chips produced by subsidiary Rexchip unpackaged and stored.
Powerchip is the only company announcing its planned output reduction. The company was quoted as saying in previous reports that monthly capacity for DRAM products will decrease to about 40,000 units in the last quarter of 2011, from the previous 80,000.
Samsung Electronics and Hynix Semiconductor, however, still have no intention of controlling their output, the sources revealed. The two Korea-based vendors collectively hold a more than 60% share of the global DRAM market.
In addition, industry leader Samsung is accelerating its shift to 20nm-class process technology to drive down production costs, the sources pointed out.
DRAM spot prices have rebounded recently with branded and effectively tested (eTT) 2Gb DDR3 chips climbing to over US$1 and US$0.90, respectively, according to data compiled by DRAMeXchange. Contract prices, however, continued to fall in the second half of August with 4GB DDR3 modules slipping 8.5% averagely to US$21.50 (corresponding 2Gb chips quoted at US$1.19).
Source:digitimes