Winbond to report small 1Q13 loss

Winbond Electronics is set to report another quarterly loss, but small, paving the way for the company's return to profitability.

Market watchers expect Winbond's net losses for the first quarter of 2013 to narrow significantly compared to the prior quarter and a year ago. With revenues edging higher thanks to more favorable DRAM prices, the company stands a good chance of swinging to second-quarter profits, the watchers said.

Winbond has enjoyed a boost in SDRAM prices, which recently saw a rally along with standard DRAM prices, the watchers indicated.

Winbond also specializes in the manufacture of NOR flash memory. The company recently announced that it is ramping up production of serial flash chips using a newer 58nm process node, which allows it to produce more dies-per-wafer with lower costs.

Fellow DRAM manufacturer Nanya Technology, which is shifting its business focus to SDRAM from PC DRAM chips, reportedly will likely swing to a quarterly profit in the first quarter of 2013. Inotera Memories, which has put increasing focus on mobile DRAM and server memory, already swung back to profit in March.

Inotera, Nanya and Winbond will hold their quarterly investors meetings during the week of April 22.