(Hsin-Chu ) ĄV Winbond Electronics Corporation announced its semi-annual performance results in the Board Meeting held today. The Company's board of directors approved the Company's 1H'2002 audited Financial Reports. The revenues in the first half of the year totaled NT$15.488 billion. As compared to the corresponding period last year, the revenue increased by about 20%. The net loss after tax was NT$1.993 billion, equivalent to a net loss per share of NT$0.45.
Winbond's revenue in the second quarter was NT$7.716 billion, representing a decrease of 5% when compared to that in the first quarter. However, in comparison with the same period last year, revenue grew by 24%, reflecting an improvement in the business environment. Gross profit for the second quarter of 2002 was NT$1.420 billion and the gross profit margin as a percentage of revenue was 18%. Factoring all the operating expenses, the company reported an operating loss of NT$628 million. In addition, the Company recognized two non-recurring items in the second quarter, inventory write-down and IP charge-off expenses. The Company wrote down NT$833 million inventories and booked NT$692 million of other expenses, primarily for IP royalty fees settlement.
Winbond reported a net loss for the second quarter of 2002 mainly attributable to the slower-than-expected PC industry. Meanwhile, the Company's shipments of the LCD driver ICs also experienced a cutback in the second quarter given its delay in delivery of new products. As for the DRAM products, the results were in line with the market performance. While the DRAM spot price decreased by 26% in the second quarter, the Company's ASP decreased by 15% only. This was mainly because the Company stopped the supply to Toshiba at the discounted prices. In aggregate, the product breakdown in terms of revenue in the second quarter was as follows: DRAM 49%, Non-DRAM Memory 13%, and Logic products 38%.
Foreseeing the industry trend that Double Data Rate (DDR) DRAM will become the mainstream DRAM products in the marketplace, the Company continued its increase in the output for DDR in the first half of 2002. This strategy turned out to be correct as evidenced by the recent strong demand for DDR. Currently, DDR shipments comprise more than half of the Company's total DRAM production. Meanwhile, based on the Company's strengths in the product offerings, the Company has been focused on the niche products and successfully delivered DDR-333 in a great volume to the markets. This strategy places Winbond in an ideal position to command the higher prices of DDR products.
Moreover, the Company has continued its devotion to offering the higher-end products, like DDR-400, to the market. Based on its plan on hand, the Company will ship DDR-400 to the customers based on the customers' demand and requests. With regard to the technology migration, the Company expects to move toward to 0.13-micron production technology by the end of the third quarter. The Company expects to gain additional 50% dies output following its success of the aforementioned geometry migration. By achieving the technology upgrades, the Company expects to enjoy further manufacturing cost advantages.
Winbond's strategy to diversify its Memory product lines has yielded good results. The Company started to provide the so-called Pseudo SRAM, that is suitable for the next generation mobile phones and handheld electronics in the second quarter of 2002. Winbond's Pseudo SRAM could provide the customers with a complete total solution for the portable electronics products, offering less power-consumption while maintaining price competitiveness.
With respect to the Company's Logic product business, the microcontroller-based consumer ICs will emphasize on developing the total solutions for the Short Message Service (SMS) ICs. Currently, the targeted markets are particularly in Europe and Mainland China. As for personal computers and the display products, the focus will be primarily on the TFT-LCD Driver ICs. In the mean time the Company will continue its development of the wireless data communication products. In addition to the above-mentioned, Winbond will also continue to strengthen its competitiveness in the fields of motherboard-related ICs, microcontroller-embedded ICs, toys ICs, and the voice-synthetic ICs.