Rapidly deteriorating demand and falling prices for commodity memory prompted Micron to cut off 3D NAND and DRAM wafers grew 20% quarter over quarter. The company currently expects 3D NAND bit production to increase slightly in the next calendar year, while DRAM bit production is expected to decline in 2023.
To combat slowing demand for 3D NAND and DRAM memory, Micron is reducing wafer starts by approximately 20% compared to the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2022, which ended September 1, 2022. This reduction happens across all technology nodes. Because of Micron’s use of it in mass production, the company is essentially reducing production of virtually every kind of product.
Micron’s ongoing first quarter of fiscal 2023 ends in early December, so a reduction in wafer starts today is unlikely to have a significant impact on the company’s quarterly or market results.3D NAND and DRAM Both production and test/packaging cycles are fairly long, so the market will feel the impact of Micron’s cuts in a matter of weeks. Spot prices, on the other hand, may react faster to Micron’s announcement.
However, as Micron expects DRAM bit production to decline and 3D NAND bit production to grow in the “single-digit percentage range,” the current reduction in wafer starting volume will likely continue to fall for the entire fiscal year 2023. will affect the company’s output of
Micron began production of its 232-layer 3D NAND memory this summer, and began manufacturing LPDDR5X memory today in its 1-beta manufacturing process. Both new production nodes will allow Micron to cut costs and increase bit production, but the company said in late September that he would be switching to 232L 3D NAND and his It warned that it would delay the launch of 1βDRAM production. Micron’s 232-layer 3D NAND device with a 2,400 MT/s interface is configured to enable the fastest SSD with a PCIe 5.0 x4 interface, currently available with a sequential read speed of 12.4 GB/s Outperforms the best SSD possible.
Micron also revealed in September that its fiscal 2023 capital spending will be about $8 billion, down 30% from fiscal 2022. The cuts primarily relate to the procurement of new wafer fab equipment, which will slow down the company’s adoption of its latest manufacturing technology. The company’s construction CapEx was expected to more than double as the company builds a new fab in Idaho. The company said today that it is “working towards reducing additional capital expenditures” without elaborating.
“Micron is taking bold and aggressive steps to curb bit supply growth to limit the size of its inventory,” said Micron Chief Executive Sanjay Melotra. “We will continue to monitor industry conditions and make further adjustments as necessary. Despite near-term cyclical challenges, we remain confident in the long-term demand drivers of the market. Longer term, we expect memory and storage revenue growth to outpace the rest of the semiconductor industry.”
