Total losses in 2011 of Taiwan-based DRAM firms Nanya Technology and Inotera Memories reached NT$60.883 billion (US$2.03 billion), the largest in Taiwan's DRAM history. Nanya indicated that 2011 was the bottom for DRAM pricing, and even if the price returns to US$1, it will still be too low.
Separately, Nanya reported 2011 losses of NT$39.8 billion while Inotera reported losses of NT$21 billion.
Both firms plan to reduce capex for 2012 and focus on 30nm processes. Nanya announced 2012 capex will only be approximately NT$3.4 billion with 70-80% of capacity at its 12-inch wafer plants switching to non-PC applications.
Inotera's capex for 2012 is NT$4 billion, focusing on production of 4Gb DDR3 chips. Inotera plans to turn 30% of capacity to 30nm.
According to vice president of Nanya, Pai Pei-lin, the market will begin to return in second-quarter 2012. The current problem is the Europe market as demand is coming from Eastern Europe and Russia only.