US to slap duties on manufacturers

The US government is set to announce that it is imposing anti-dumping duties on memory made by South Korean companies Hyundai and LG Semicon.

The tariffs, according to sources close to the discussions, will be 3.9 per cent on Hyundai and 9.87 per cent on DRams exported by LG Semicon.

It followed widespread allegations from US company Micron that South Korean manufacturers were dumping DRams into the market below price (PC Dealer, 5 August).

Similar allegations have been made against Hyundai and LG Semicon in Europe, in particular by Siemens. The EU is said to be considering levies this month.

Hyundai could seek to avoid such duties by increasing production in the US. Reports from Seoul said its plant in Eugene, Oregon, had started production of 64Mbparts, soon set to increase to 30,000 wafers a month.

Meanwhile, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA), worldwide chip sales fell by 17 per cent during July, accounting for $9.66 billion revenue. This figure compares to $11.65 billion in July last year.

The SIA blamed continued economic turmoil in Japan, added to pressures on product pricing. Sales in Japan declined by 30.2 per cent compared to July last year, but the SIA said two thirds of this decline was because of depreciation of the yen.

But George Scalise, president of the SIA, said there were positive signs in the market largely due to increased sales of PC.

'The oversupply of some semiconductor products has driven down the average selling price of applications, but pricing will modify as demand balances with capacity,' he added.

The European market dropped from $2.31 billion to $2.22 billion year on year. The US sector fell from $3.85 billion to $3.20 billion, while Asia Pacific fell from $2.54 billion to $2.1 billion, said the SIA revealed.

The rolling three-month average compiled by the organisation showed that the Asia Pacific region slumped by nearly 10 per cent.