Winbond, Macronix had a decline November revenue

Taipei, Dec. 10, 2003 (CENS)--Memory-chip makers Winbond Electronics Corp. and Macronix International Co., Ltd. Raked in less monthly revenues last month than in the previous month, suggesting that the business has cooled down from busy season.

Winbond's November revenue was NT$2.69 billion (US$79 million at US$1:NT$34), dwindling 6.8% from October's 2.89 billion (US$85 million). Macronix's November revenue, posted at NT$1.79 billion (US$52.8 million), lost 11.21% from October's NT$2.02 billion (US$59.5 million).

Winbond executives attributed the revenue decline to seasonal factor and lukewarm DRAM (dynamic random access memory) market. The slumping trend was confined by its increased shipment of Pseudo statistic random access memory (SRAM) chips. The company said it will continuously stress product-mix strategy and put more emphasis on wireless chips. In the first eleven months, the company had a total revenue of NT$26.8 billion (US$790.8 million), falling 9% from same period of last year.

Macronix executives owed the company's revenue slump to reduced orders for its Mask ROM chips from game-console player Nintendo. Last month, Mask ROM and Flash memory chip accounted for 40% and 30% of the company's total shipment, respectively. Despite the November revenue decline, the company's Jan.-Nov. revenue, posted at NT$15.7 billion (US$463 million), represented a 5.81% gain from same period of last year.

The company estimated its December revenue to stay on par with November level and remains confident of the goal of increasing fourth-quarter revenue by double digits as compared with third-quarter figure and improving gross profit margin by 5% to 10% in the meantime.

Nanyo Technologies Corp. will announce its November revenue tomorrow. Market analysts estimated the revenue to be only 2% less than its October level, at around NT$2.8 billion (US$82 million). The company recently revised downward its gross profit margin goal for this year to NT$4.8 billion (US$143 million) from NT$7.9 million (US$234 million) because of unexpected loss last quarter.

However, the company said its production defect-free ratio has reached over 85%. Thanks to the ratio increase, the company's November revenue is estimated to be profitable as compared with October revenue. It expected the goal of earning NT$700 million (US$20 million) and enjoying a gross margin of 27% this quarter to be achievable.