As Advanced Micro Devices Inc and Varian Associates Inc announce cuts in chip-related jobs, there is a glimmer of hope for the suffering fabricators and distributors of memory chips. Evidence of any recovery so far is very limited, but in the UK, Datrontech Plc reports that prices for 16Mb memory modules have hardened significantly in the past week, rising to the equivalent of $112 from $73, as demand increases ahead of the holiday season. And from Tokyo, Reuter reports that 16M-bit memorg chips on the spot market are now $10 a time, up from $8 in early August, but We have yet to see indications from suppliers that there is indeed a turnaround, an analyst at a Singapore broker said. It could be a blip. Meantime Varian is cutting about 115 jobs at its semiconductor equipment factories in Gloucester, Massachusetts and Palo Alto, due to slow demand, and Advanced Micro is cutting up to 200 jobs and taking a $6m charge this quarter, blaming weak demand. And static RAM and micropro cessor fabricator Integrated Device Technology Inc, Santa Clara warns that sales and earnings are expected to be over $10 lower than forecast for its second quarter. The company is working on a wide ranging cost-reduction plan to be implemented before the end of the year. Prices continued to decline in the standard static RAM and it expects this to remain the case into 1997. Other products are in predictable pricing and ordering patterns.
