Nanya Technology and Inotera Memories are likely to report net losses for the third quarter of 2010, which would mark the third straight quarterly losses for the two DRAM makers, according to market watchers.
Nanya and Inotera saw their yields being hurt during their process transitions during the third quarter, the watchers indicated. In particular for Inotera, the company's monthly output dropped to as low as 50,000-60,000 units in July and August while migrating from an older trench technology to a 50nm stack process.
The watchers estimated that Inotera's net losses for the third quarter widened from losses of NT$1.81 billion in the second quarter. But the watchers expressed optimism about the company's long-term competitiveness.
Inotera is set to convert all of its chip production (130,000 wafers a month) to the 50nm node by the end of 2010, the company was quoted in previous reports. The company also expects its bit shipments to climb 100% sequentially in the fourth quarter.
Also affected by migration to 50nm technology, Nanya had lower-than-expected shipments in the third quarter. The recent drops in DRAM contract pricing also eroded Nanya's profitability in the third quarter.
The watchers estimated Nanya's third-quarter net losses at NT$1.5-2 billion, compared to losses of NT$1.02 billion in the prior quarter.
However, fellow DRAM companies Powerchip Technology and Rexchip Electronics are likely to report net profits for the third quarter, the watchers expect. Rexchip would be the only one of Taiwan's DRAM chipmakers to post profit growth sequentially in the third quarter, thanks to its smooth transition to 63nm process technology, the watchers added.
ProMOS Technologies remained unprofitable in the third quarter, but net losses for the quarter should significantly improved from losses in the second quarter due to the recognized gain resulted from the sale of a wafer fab to Macronix International.