Samsung sees chip growth slowing
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Korean chipmaker expects global sales will halve next year; sales growth could be in single digit. SEOUL  - Growth in global semiconductor sales will probably halve next year and memory chip sales
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Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.'s  005930.KS quarterly profit jumped 46 percent from a year ago  on strong memory chip earnings, but fell from the previous  quarter on sinking prices of flat screens for TV and computers.
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Samsung Electronics has developed a chip-manufacturing technique able to significantly increase the amount of music, pictures, videos, and other data people can store in future iPods, iPhones, and other devices.The world&#39;s largest memory chip maker showed off a 64Gb multilevel cell (MLC) NAND flash memory chip made with an entirely new 30-nanometer production technology. A nanometer is a billionth of a meter, and the measure refers to the average size of the smallest features on the chip. The manufacturing breakthrough, which Samsung calls self-aligned double patterning technology (SaDPT), will enable the company to greatly increase the storage capacity of new NAND flash memory chips once the technology is in commercial production.For example, 16 of the 64Gb chips can be combined in a memory card for 128GB of storage space, enough for 80 DVD movies or 32,000 MP3 music files, the company said in a statement.Even more important for users, Samsung was able to make the technology leap without requiring certain expensive new chip making equipment. While moves to smaller production technologies often require investment in expensive new photolithography equipment, the company was able to use current photolithography gear to etch circuits on the silicon wafers. That should ensure low production costs and reasonable prices for end-users.SaDPT technology uses two pattern transfers to create the circuit design of each chip. The first transfer spaces the circuits widely apart, then the second transfer uses that space between the circuits to add another circuit, with the result that the circuitry is more densely packed together.Samsung has applied for 30 patents related to the new 64Gb flash chip, and said it also created a 32Gb chip with the same production technology. The company expects to begin mass production of 64Gb flash chips with its 30nm manufacturing technology in 2009.
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Samsung Electronics, the world's top memory chip maker, reported its smallest quarterly profit in four years after steep declines in computer memory chip prices overshadowed improvements in flat screens.
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Japanese-Swedish mobile phone maker Sony  Ericsson said on Tuesday it expects slower growth in the global  handset market next year.
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InfoWorld - Samsung Electronics will update its mobile processor lineup with a new chip that combines a 667MHz processor core with hardware acceleration for multimedia, including 3D graphics and video, the company said Sunday.
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Growth in chip sales is set to halve next year due to a glut in the market, Korean chipmaker Samsung has warned. The firm said memory chips were in for a slowdown, with prices for flash memory set to fall as much as 40% in the three months to September.
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(InfoWorld) - Samsung Electronics saw a sharp fall in operating profits during the three months from April to June due to theÂ weak marketÂ for computer memory chips. Prices of the chips, which are used for the main memory in personal computers, fell because supply exceeded demand. That hit Samsung because it's one of the world's largest makers of DRAM (dynamic RAM) chips. The company said operating profit was 910 billion won ($985 million) as of the last day of the period being reported), which is down from 1.4 trillion won ($1.5 billion) in the second quarter of 2006. Net profit, which is a wider measure of profitability and includes subsidiaries and non-core operations, was down slightly at 1.42 trillion won from 1.5 trillion won a year earlier. Net sales were up 4 percent to 14.6 trillion won. "Despite the dire business environment, such as the precipitous fall of DRAM (dynamic RAM) prices and seasonality, we have posted a decent result in Q2," said Chu Woosik, head of investor relations at Samsung, in a conference call with analysts. Profits at Samsung's semiconductor unit dropped by two-thirds as a result of the weak DRAM market. The good news, said Chu, is that the DRAM market is already starting to show signs of a turn-around, thanks to interest in Windows Vista PCs, which require more memory. During the remainder of the year the market for DRAM chips is expected to be strong, he said. Strong demand for Apple's iPhone and competing handsets are alsoÂ expected to keep up pricesÂ and profits for NAND flash memory, which is Samsung's other major memory chip product, strong. Chu said Samsung is in talks with several consumer electronics companies about supplying chips for as-yet-unannounced portable media players with video. Samsung's cellphone handset business was one of the brightest spots in the results. The company shipped a record 37.4 million phones in the quarter thanks to the popularity of its thin "Ultra" edition handsets. The second quarter was the fourth consecutive quarter in which Samsung reported record sales. As a result Samsung said it now expects to ship more than 150 million phones this year, up from its previous target of 133 million. The LCD (liquid crystal display) business enjoyed brisk business and Samsung shipped a record 2 million displays in the 40-inch and above class. Sales rose by 17 percent and operating profits surged 290 percent. Looking ahead, Chu said Samsung expects the remainder of the year to be strong for the company. "We are very optimistic about the second half," he said. "We are expecting all of our major business units to experience very high levels of demand and recovery starting from Q3. As a result of such an improvement coupled with our vigorous attempts to reduce cost, we are hoping to see significant improvements in the bottom line in Q3. We expect this nice recovery to last throughout the rest of the year." Â
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Korea's Samsung Electronics   hopes to have a phone based on Google's   Android mobile phone software platform by early next year, it  said at the Mobile World Congress on Monday.
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LONDON (CBS.MW) - Growth in global chip sales is likely to halve in 2005, Samsung Electronics said on Monday, according to reports.
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Korean chipmaker Samsung says it will invest 25 trillion won building new chip production lines over the next six years.
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Samsung said Friday that second-quarter net profit fell 5 percent from a year ago on price declines for its mainstay computer memory chips, but expressed confidence a rebound in the market would bolster earnings.
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(InfoWorld) - The head of the world's largest contract chip maker said his industry will have trouble maintaining sales and profit growth in the future because the overall chip industry has slowed down and there's a lot more competition. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) plans to expand to new markets and find new work in product areas such as chips for mobile phones, digital cameras, and other consumer electronics devices in order to meet these challenges, said Morris Chang, the chairman of TSMC, at the International Solid-State Circuits Conference in San Francisco on Monday. The company released information from his speech. Overall revenue growth in the chip industry has slowed to around 6 percent per year between 2000 and 2010, from 16 percent each year prior to 2000, he said. At the same time, more new rivals have entered the contract chip making business. His company will have to find new ways to grow despite these challenges, he said. "Growth opportunities exist in cell-phone applications, game systems, digital TV, LCD displays, power management, MP3 devices, and digital cameras," a paper Chang submitted to the conference reads. Developing closer relationships with the chip design companies that create chips for these kinds of products will be a key strategy for TSMC in the future. TSMC manufactures chips that are designed by other companies, a business model it pioneered. Prior to the Taiwanese company's founding, small chip design firms had to ask Intel, Motorola, and other big chip makers to make their chips, and these companies would only comply if their factories weren't being fully used already. Most small companies didn't have enough money to set up their own chip factory because the high tech plants used to cost around $1 billion each. Now, a new one can cost $3.5 billion. TSMC stepped in to fill the gap, and the result has been the steady growth of chip design companies that never build their own factories. They rely on TSMC or other foundry chip makers, including Taiwan's United Microelectronics Corp. (UMC), to manufacture their chips. Mobile phone chip developer Qualcomm and graphics chip designer Nvidia are two examples of companies that have been wildly successful, despite not owning their own factories. They farm out production to foundries such as TSMC and UMC. The success of TSMC and UMC has caused a number of new competitors to enter the chip foundry business. IBM, Samsung Semiconductor, and China's Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. (SMIC)Â are all examples of latecomers to the foundry business. These new rivals have been able to survive, and in some cases thrive. "The growth of the industry has attracted many companies to offer foundry services. Consequently, competition between these companies increases the potential for commoditization of foundry services," according to Chang's report. He goes on to say that going forward, the best defense for TSMC will be to engage with chip design customers far earlier in the developing stage of their products, and to offer a wider range of production services. TSMC and UMC hold around a 75 percent share of the global chip foundry business, according to investment banking firm Merrill Lynch & Co. Last week, TSMC said itÂ opened its first office Bangalore, India, to find new customers and help existing ones complete their chip designs faster and bring products more quickly to market. Â
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SOUTH Korea &#39;s Samsung Electronics, the world&#39;s largest memory chipmaker, is to invest $US24 billion ($31 billion) in new chip production lines over the next six years.
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By MATTHEW FORDAHL    SAN JOSE, Calif.  -- Contradicting fears that the semiconductor industry's pace of development is slowing, Intel Corp...
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Samsung Electronics, the worldâs second largest chipmaker, said on Monday it would invest Won25,000bn ($24bn) in new chip production lines by 2010 to generate accumulative sales of Won200,000bn.
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The semiconductor industry is showing the first signs of slowing growth, trimming purchases of raw materials and production equipment as demand slows, industry executives and analysts said on Tuesday.