Macronix Secures Rush NOR Flash Orders After Quake

Taipei, March 21, 2011 (CENS)--Macronix International Co., Ltd. has secured rush orders for NOR Flash memory chips after the recent devastating earthquake in Japan, according to corporate president Minn Wu.

Regardless of the earthquake, Wu maintained the company's revenue goal for 2011 at NT$6.5-6.8 billion (US$216.6-226.6 million at US$1:NT$30). In the first two months this year, the company had raked in total revenue of NT$4.3 billion (US$144 million), up 5.3% year on year.

He said most of his company's Japanese suppliers are not in the quake-hit areas and his company still hold enough inventory backlogs of raw materials, easing the fears that supplies to his company would be unstable.

When asked whether or not the quake would deal a blow to world market of Nintendo 3DS, he said the quake would not affect the market in long term as average life cycle of a Nintendo product is about five years.

Wu said Nintendo 3DS is actually deeply associated with his company's read only memory (ROM) chips and his company will closely watch the ROM market.

Industry executives pointed out that NOR Flash buyers are competing to build up inventories as Texas Instruments' (TI's) two NOR Flash factories in Japan were serioously damaged by the 9.0-magnitutude earthquake.

The company is set to boost output capacity to 20,000 300mm wafers of chips a month by the end of this year, with investment capital of NT$17.6 billion (US$586 million).