PSPC ramps up production on strong Samsung demand

LISTED Phoenix Semiconductor Philippines Corp. (PSPC) is looking to ship 130 million memory devices in the third quarter, on strong demand from South Korean tech giant Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.

In a disclosure to the stock exchange on Thursday, PSPC said production orders are expected to hit 130 million units of next generation double data rate fourth-generation (DDR4) dynamic random access modules (DRAM) and flat-chip memory chips and memory cards for the next three months. 

The local arm of one of Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.’s South Korean suppliers said it expects sales revenue to “normalize” between $17 to 18 million a month for the second half. PSPC started commercial production of the next-generation memory devices in July. 

In the first three months of the year, PSPC had reported sales revenue of $40.76 million, or a monthly average of $13.59 million.

PSPC President Byeongchun Lee said the semiconductor industry migrated to the DDR4 industry platforms, including the memory segment, in the second quarter, which affected production volumes and revenues in April and May.

PSPC put up new manufacturing and testing production lines, which passed Samsung’s production qualification certification on July 11.

In July alone, the company produced and delivered 7.60 million units of 8 gigabyte (GB) DDR4 memory devices, which are used in servers and new desktop PC models, and produced 2 million units of 4 GB DDR4 memory devices, used in new models of laptops.

PSPC said Samsung has issued projected purchase orders for the 8 and 4 GB memory devices for the next three months. Samsung’s production order for 8 GB DDR4 memory devices reached 9.9 million, 9.8 million and 17.7 million, respectively in August, September, and October. 

For the 4 GB devices, Samsung’s production commitment is 9.7 million in August, 15 million in September and 16.6 million in October.

Mr. Lee expressed confidence that production and shipment will continue its uptrend in the fourth quarter, as consumers buy more electronics during the Christmas season. 

PSPC is a subsidiary of South Korea’s STS Semiconductor Telecommunications Co.

Shares in PSPC added 2 centavos to close at P1.67 on Thursday. -- Lucia Edna P. de Guzman

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