Micron Swings to Loss
Micron Technology on Wednesday reported a loss for its second quarter of fiscal 2016, citing ongoing pricing pressure in DRAM and flash memory chips. The company reported sales of $2.93 billion for the quarter, down 12% compared with the previous quarter and down 30% compared with the second quarter of fiscal 2015. Micron also reported a net loss of $97 million for the fiscal second quarter, compared with a profit of $206 million in the previous quarter and a profit of $934 million in the second quarter of fiscal 2015.
"Our results were impacted by continued weakness in the PC market, seasonality and timing of product launches in certain market segments," said Mark Durcan, Micron’s CEO, in a conference call with analysts following the quarterly report.
Durcan said Micron is simultaneously ramping, qualifying and delivering several new products, including 20nm DDR4 DRAM, low power DDR4 and 3D NAND.
Micron said DRAM average selling prices (ASPs) and sales volumes each declined about 10% compared with the fiscal first quarter.
Micron expects to improve its competitive position in the second half of 2016 based on planned increases in bit shipments and cost reductions. "We believe the combination of new products with more efficient manufacturing on advanced nodes will drive significant improvement in Micron’s relative competitive position in the second half of 2016 and beyond," Durcan said.