South Korean chipmaker LG Semicon Co has recorded a huge six-month loss that the company blames on problems created by the won’s weakness and high local interest rates. The company said it recorded a $186.5m net loss for the January-June period, compared with $11.8m in net income for the same period last year. Operating profit was $102.8m, 19.2% down on last year’s level but this was wiped out by expenses from the won’s depreciation and interest payments. LG says unit prices of dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chips were recovering and interest rates easing. The price of 64-megabit DRAMs now stands at $9.6 per unit after falling to as low as $7 in May-June and our production cost continues to drop, said an LG spokesman. But he added that the improving performance for the rest of this year would be insufficient to offset the loss recorded in the first six-month period.
