NEC weighs anti-dumping complaint

Cheap memory chips are causing anger

Japan's giant chip-makers are considering asking the government to bring an anti-dumping case against rival makers of memory chips.

They are worried about cheap dynamic random access memory chips (DRAM) - used in PCs and other consumer electronics goods - entering the Japanese market.

Prices of DRAM chips have plummeted to 10% of what they were a year ago, causing concern to struggling Japanese chipmakers such as Toshiba and Hitachi, who have already cut jobs this year, analysts say.

A spokesman for NEC confirmed the firm may press for anti-dumping action: "Looking at the current DRAM market, it is clear there is unfair pricing that runs counter to healthy market competition," he said.

Korean firms targetted

"Accordingly, we will in the future consider all possibilities," he said.

The Nihon Keizai newspaper reported that NEC was among four top chip-makers who want to action against cheap foreign DRAM chips. The others are Toshiba, Hitachi and Mitsubishi Electronic, it said.

Korean chip-makers are the most likely targets of any such action and officials in the four firms have started an investigation to build a case against them, the newspaper said.

Korean firm Hynix Semiconductor denied it is dumping chips in Japan.

Instead, it said, the slowdown in global demand for IT has caused DRAM chips to fall in price.

Global slowdown

"It is more accurate to say plunging chip prices are attributable to the slowing global IT industry, not just to Korean chipmakers," the company said in a statement.

Another Korean giant, Samsung said it would respond to any complaint with legal action.

"We see a very slim possibility of Japanese firms raising a complaint against us as our memory chips are selling at the most expensive prices in the world," a Samsung spokesman said.

Big losses

Japanese big electronics firms are suffering heavy losses in their semi-conductor manufacturing operations.

DRAMs account for more than half the combined operating losses of 344bn yen ($2.81bn) that Japan's big five electronics firms - NEC, Toshiba, Hitachi Ltd, Mitsubishi Electric Corp and Fujitsu Ltd - have forecast for their chip-making units in the current financial year to March 2002, analysts say.

Even before the 11 September attacks raised fresh fears about prospects for the US market, both Toshiba and Hitachi had announced big job cuts.

Since then, NEC has warned it will post a huge loss this year.