Worldwide shipments of polished and epitaxial silicon wafers are forecast to total 12.445 billion square inches in 2018, exceeding the market high set in 2017, according to SEMI. Shipments will continue to reach record levels through 2021.

China's state-owned Tsinghua Unigroup has already begun to implement its new fab projects in Nanjing and Chengdu as part of its memory business expansion. The new manufacturing sites are designed for monthly output of 300,000 12-inch wafers each, according to sources familiar with the matter.

DRAM chipmaker Nanya Technology has revised downward its capex outlook for 2018 to NT$21 billion (US$681.7 million), down from the NT$24 billion set previously, in a move to decelerate capacity expansion amid unfavorable market conditions.

The ASP for DRAM memory is set to start falling in the fourth quarter and continue its downward trend in 2019, while that for NAND flash chips will also decrease. ASPs for both memory products are expected to decline by over 15% in 2019, according to DRAMeXchange.

Micron Technology has announced it will invest up to US$100 million in startups with a strong focus on AI and machine learning through its strategic investments entity, Micron Ventures.

Macronix International has reported September consolidated revenues increased 15.9% sequentially, while Winbond Electronics' revenues fell 9.4% on month.

Memory module maker Adata Technology has reported consolidated revenues of NT$2.64 billion (US$85.2 million) for September 2018, down nearly 10% on year and 22% sequentially. Revenues totaled NT$8.75 billion for the third quarter of 2018, the highest quarterly levels in five years.

Samsung Electronics has provided its earnings guidance for the third quarter of 2018, estimating record operating profits of about KRW17.5 trillion (US$15.5 billion) on consolidated revenues of approximately KRW65 trillion.

Toshiba and Macronix International have reached an agreement to settle the patent disputes brought by the two companies in Japan and Taiwan, Macronix said in a company filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange (TWSE).

DRAM chipmaker Nanya Technology saw its third-quarter revenues slip nearly 1% on quarter, which came below market watchers' expectation of sequential growth.

The DRAM market is known for being very cyclical and after experiencing strong gains for two years, historical precedence now strongly suggests that the DRAM ASP will soon begin trending downward, according to IC Insights.

Chipmakers are encountering low manufacturing yield rates of 3D 4bits/cell (QLC) NAND chips, and substandard chips due to the poor QLC NAND yields may cause disruption to the market and further confusion in the memory pricing during the first half of 2019, according to industry sources.

Winbond Electronics will hold a groundbreaking ceremony for its new 12-inch wafer fab in southern Taiwan on October 3, according to the Kaohsiung city government.

Worldwide sales of semiconductors reached US$40.16 billion for the month of August 2018, an increase of 14.9% compared to the August 2017 total of US$34.96 billion, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA).

The memory-chip market exhibited impressive growth in 2017 as undersupply drove up both the DRAM and NAND flash prices. However, oversupply has re-emerged this year casting a shadow over the sector. The market growth still looks promising despite short-term challenges, according to CK Chang, president...

HDD demand for enterprise data centers continues to be strong, according to Christopher Bergey, executive VP at Western Digital (WD).

Taiwan's Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) is aggressively moving to pool cross-domain academic forces to help the semiconductor sector break through bottlenecks seen in the development of crucial materials, advanced processes and high-performance chips through its ongoing Semiconductor Moonshot...

DRAM contract prices are forecast to fall 5% sequentially in the fourth quarter of 2018, according to DRAMeXchange, which estimated previously a smaller 1-3% drop. Demand growth has been "limited" while DRAM bit supply continues to grow, said the price tracker.

Powertech Technology (PTI) has started constructing a new plant at the Hsinchu Science Park, northern Taiwan, which will enter volume production using the company's fan-out panel-level packaging (FOPLP) technology in 2020, according to the backend house.

The three-month average of worldwide billings of North America equipment manufacturers registered a sequential decrease for the third consecutive month in August 2018, reaching a nine-month low of US$2.24 billion, according to SEMI.

Major NAND flash chip vendors have had over 60% of their production capacities utilize 64/72-layer 3D NAND process technology, helping 3D NAND become a mainstream technology, according to industry observers.

The ongoing US-China trade war has had a more significant impact on the demand side than on the supply side of the electronics industry, according to Miin Wu, chairman for flash memory supplier Macronix International.

NAND flash prices have fallen to "healthy" levels, according to Huabo Cai, chairman for China-based memory module firm Longsys.

Toshiba Memory and Western Digital have announced jointly the opening of Fab 6 and a new R&D center at Toshiba's Yokkaichi operations in Mie, Japan.

NAND controller chipmaker Phison Electronics expects its shipments of NAND flash solutions for handset applications to expand exponentially in 2019 and those for SSD controller chips to grow 30-40% on year, propelled bythe ever expanding memory market and increasing orders from industrial partners,...