Winbond Electronics, which swung to a small loss in the third quarter of 2011, is likely to stay in the red in the last quarter of the year due to declining sales of NOR flash and specialty DRAM (SDRAM) memories, according to market observers.

Winbond continued to suffer falling ASPs for its NOR chip products in the fourth quarter amid oversupply pressue, the observers indicated. Meanwhile, the market for SDRAM memeory is being negatively impacted by that for standard DRAM, which simultaneously hit the company's SDRAM business, the observers said.

Winbond slipped to the red in the third quarter of 2011, bringing an end to eight consecutive quarters of profits. Earnings were NT$387 million (US$12.9 million) in the first half of 2011, but shrank to NT$346 million in the first three quarters of the year.

Winbond is expected to unveil its earnings results for the fourth quarter and all of 2011 around the end of January or early-February.

Winbond posted NT$1.83 billion in December revenues. Revenues for the fourth quarter amounted to NT$5.72 billion, representing a 17.4% sequential decline.

Winbond generated NT$27.21 billion in 2011 revenues, down 14.6% from 2010 levels.