Thursday, February 14, 2008

[The Chosun Ilbo, February 1 2008] Gloomy Skies May Be Clearing for Chipmakers

After suffering extreme losses throughout all of last year, the semiconductor industry is finally seeing a glimmer of hope. There are signs that prices of DRAM chips are rallying and chipmakers are reducing their investments and output to avoid another price slump.

According to DRAMeXchange, a leading e-marketplace for semiconductor products, the price of 1-Gb DDR DRAM has increased 14 percent since the beginning of the year.

Demand is also increasing as shoppers in Korea and China buy computers for Lunar New Year gifts, and big PC makers like Hewlett Packard and Dell boost their memory chip orders in the belief that prices have hit bottom.

This may be the reason that chipmakers like Samsung Electronics and Hynix have been doing quite well on the stock market, even as markets have been plummeting worldwide.

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