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Micron cuts capex and idles capacity at Inotera as Qimonda collapses
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A weak outlook and continued cost cutting at Micron Technology has seen the memory manufacturer trim its capital spending plans further for FY2009. Micron said in a conference call to discuss quarterly earnings that capital spending would be lowered to between US$650 and US$700 million, down from previous guidance of between US$650 and US$750 million. Nearly three-quarters of Micron’s FY2009 capital spending has already been spent, the company said.
Micron also noted that with the bankruptcy of Qimonda AG, the German based DRAM manufacturer had defaulted on its wafer purchase commitment with Inotera, which is now partly owned by Micron. This has meant that Inotera has been forced to idle a significant amount of its DRAM production, according to Micron.
The DRAM supply deal Qimonda had with Inotera was known in the past to be 50% of capacity. Micron said that idle facility charges at Inotera were approximately US$60 million in the last quarter.
Micron’s 300mm fabs for both DRAM and NAND flash memory were still operating at 100%.