Japanese armor Q2 lost 100.8 billion yen, saying that the sales price of NAND flash memory had hit bottom.

CTOnews.com November 14, the armor is a computer memory manufacturer headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, formerly known as Toshiba Storage, is the second largest NAND storage manufacturer in the world.

Today's latest quarterly results said the company posted an operating loss of 100.8 billion yen (CTOnews.com Note: about 4.848 billion yuan) in the second quarter due to falling demand for memory chips in smartphones and personal computers (PC).

Since the new crown epidemic, the major memory chip manufacturers have been facing the plight of declining demand. As the oversupply in the market becomes more and more serious, the pressure on industry consolidation is also increasing.

It was previously reported that merger talks between Armor and Western Digital had stalled because Hercules shareholder SK Hynix did not agree. If it can be merged, the merged company will control 1/3 of the global NAND flash memory market, keeping pace with Samsung Electronics, which is bound to pose a threat to the position of SK Hynix.

As a result, Western Digital announced that it would spin off its memory business, but remained open to alternatives that could bring "higher value" to the planned spin-off.

While investment in artificial intelligence is expected to boost the chip industry, the rebound in demand for NAND flash memory for data storage is unclear. Armour said that NAND sales prices have hit bottom, and shipments of smartphones and PC are expected to increase next year.

Revenue fell month-on-month, but the loss was small, driven by a rise in average sales prices and a weaker yen, he said.

In addition, Toshiba (Toshiba), which owns a stake in Shixia after selling its chip division to a consortium led by Bain in 2018, posted a net loss of 26.7 billion yen in the second quarter.