Winbond Electronics and Macronix International have both reported decreases in January 2012 revenues from the previous month.
Winbond posted consolidated revenues of NT$2.29 billion (US$77.2 million) in January, down 3% sequentially and 27.8% on year. Winbond's core business, which excludes logic IC subsidiary Nuvoton Technology, generated NT$1.78 billion in January sales. The non-consolidated figure shows decreases of 2.8% on month and 31.5% from a year ago.
Winbond indicated that demand from its clients picked up before the Lunar New Year holiday, which allowed it to register a narrower-than-expected decline in January revenues despite fewer working days in the month. The company expects to manage flat sequential growth in February sales.
Winbond manufactures niche-market DRAM and NOR flash memory. Due to disrupted hard drive production caused by Thailand's floods, Winbond saw its revenues slip below NT$2 billion in November and December. Revenues for the fourth quarter slid 17% sequentially to NT$5.72 billion.
Winbond is scheduled to hold an investors meeting later today (February 8) to discuss its performance during the fourth quarter, and guidance for the first quarter of 2012. Market watchers estimate that Winbond is likely to report losses for the second consecutive quarter in the fourth quarter, as sales of its NOR flash and specialty DRAM (SDRAM) businesses were negatively affected by unfavorable market conditions and falling prices.
However, with orders for HDD-use memories returning to normal, Winbond stands a chance of returning to profitability in the second quarter of 2012, the watchers said.
Macronix has announced January revenues of NT$1.67 billion, down 20.2% on month and and 22.4% on year. The firm makes NOR flash and mask ROM memory.
Macronix will unveil its financial results for the fourth quarter at its upcoming investors conference Thursday (February 9). Buoyed by strong demand for ROM chips from Nintendo, Macronix saw its fourth-quarter sales beat its guidance, which had been upwardly adjusted once.