(HsinChu News) Winbond Electronics Corporation, a leading supplier of semiconductor solutions, today announced the results of its latest Board of Directors Meeting held on October 25, 2002. The Company's Board of Directors has approved the Company's third quarter revenue results that have been audited by a CPA. Revenue was approximately NT $7.766 Billion, an increase of one percent when compared to last quarter. However, when compared to same period last year, revenue increased significantly, 58 percent. Net loss per share was NT $0.07, an improvement compared to last quarter's net loss per share of NT $0.48.
Winbond's third quarter operational gross profit was NT$1.628 Billion; operational gross profit ratio was 21 percent. The Company's third quarter operational loss was NT $374 Million, less than last quarter's operational loss of NT $628 Million. Additionally, the Company's third quarter net loss of NT $283 Million also reflects an improvement when compared to last quarter's net loss of NT $2.139 Billion.
Indicators from Taiwan's information industry show that, overall, shipments of personal computers increased six percent when compared to the second quarter's shipments. Shipments for TFT-LCD ICs decreased 10 percent when compared to shipments in the second quarter. With respect to DRAM, the Company's average sales price (ASP) for DRAM products increased 10 percent. This was due to primarily increased shipments of Winbond's DDR333 product. Because Winbond continues to adjust its DRAM product combination, the Company has a better DRAM ASP compared to many of its competitors. Hence, Winbond's strategy for gradually phasing out commodity DRAM in order to concentrate on niche DRAM and DDR products has thus far, proven successful.
Winbond's increased third quarter revenues are mainly due to the recent stabilization of DRAM pricing, particularly the consistency in DDR pricing. Winbond DDR product sales have increased, creating an overall stabilizing effect on the Company's total revenues. Conversely, due to decreased demand for TFT-LCDs, demand for LCD Driver ICs has been slightly adversely impacted. Overall, these two trends have balanced each other out, enabling the Company to grow revenue modestly in the third quarter and increase profits.
Winbond's Memory Product Business Group continues to make progress with respect to yield rate for its 0.13-micro DRAM processing. As yields continue to increase gradually, Winbond continues to push for lower chip cost and move forward with its processing transition strategy. Currently, approximately 80 percent of Winbond's production is comprised 0.16-micron processing. The Company's 0.175-micron process is used mainly for niche products such as high density DRAM and FCRAM production. In order to satisfy growing demand for both mobile and low power consumption applications, the Corporation's Logic Product Business Group is currently focusing most of its efforts on developing products with higher value-add.
The semiconductor market still has not experienced significant signs of an economic rebound this year. Therefore, Winbond continues to operate within the financial confines of the recession by aggressively managing resources to fulfill new product development and manufacturing technology advances. In the future, as the Company continues to make additional progress on its business strategy, Winbond expects to become a leading provider of IC mobile solutions.
Spokesperson
Wilson Wen
Vice President of Administrative Center
Tel：03-5792755
Email：wswen@winbond.com
News Liaison
Mike Liu
Deputy Director
Tel：03-5792516
Email：ckliu@winbond.com