Micron asks dumping duties on Korean memories

Electronic News, April 27, 1992 by Joanne Connelly

WASHINGTON -- Micron Technology Inc. last week asked the U.S. government to impose antidumping duties on Korean memory producers which it accused of illegally dumping dynamic random access memories (DRAMs) in the U.S. at less than fair value.

In dual filings last week with the Commerce Department's International Trade Administration and the International Trade Commission, Micron asked the government to impose duties that could reach as high as 282 percent on the subject semiconductor devices. While the petition cites all Korean DRAM producers, Micron singled out three, including Hyundai Corp., Lucky-goldstar Group and Samsung Co. Ltd.

The scope of the petition includes all assembled or unassembled DRAMs of 1 megabit and above, future DRAM generations, some specialty products such as video RAM (VRAM), Single In-Line Processing Modules and Single In-Line Memory Modules (containing more than one DRAM of 1 megabit or above mounted on their own small printed circuit board) and memory cards, or memory modules, about the size of a credit-card designed for easy insertion into portable computers and printers.

The filing specifically charges that Korean DRAM producers have bought their continually growing U.S. market share by aggressively lowering prices. Hyundai and Goldstar have been the price leaders in the U.S. market, according to Micron, forcing it and all other sellers in the U.S. market to lower prices to stay anywhere near competitive.

Micron further argues that the increasing volume of imports of DRAMs from Korea at constantly declining prices has already caused material injury to the U.S. DRAM producing industry, as evidenced by its own annual report, and threatens additional injury in the future.

The net effect of such trading, Micron notes, is that U.S. DRAM manufacturers are unable to recoup costs associated with the current generation of DRAMs, and therefore cannot devote the resources necessary to develop future generations of DRAMs.

In its petition, the Boise, Ida-based concern estimates that dumping margins could range from a modest 13 percent for Samsung 1-megabit DRAMs to almost 283 percent for Hyundai 4-megabit products.

The Assistant Secretary for Trade Administration will now have 20 days to determine if the Micron petition contains sufficient information to warrant the initiation of an antidumping investigation.

The Micron petition is just the latest pressure to be applied to Korean semiconductor firms. While claiming its action had nothing to do with market conditions, Toshiba last month demanded that Samsung and possibly other Korean firms take licenses on its patented DRAM technology. The Japanese company has conceded losing DRAM market share along with other Japanese producers against Korean rivals. Similar patent demands have been made by Texas Instruments against Japanese and Korean competitors, and more recently by Micron against many of the same companies.

In a statement issued late last week, Samsung denied the dumping charges, and said it would vigorously contest the "inaccurate and unfounded" allegations put forth in the Micron petition. "Contrary to the allegations of Micron, Samsung has never sold its DRAM products in the U.S. below its cost of production," the company said, adding that its policy for selling DRAMs in the U.S. was "consistent with its pricing policy in other countries, including Korea."

Regarding the charges, Jerry R. Junkins, TI chairman and CEO, remarked: "I don't have any specific details on hand that says whether the Koreans are dumping, but the important thing is to jump on this quickly to find out what the situation is. If dumping is happening, we need to send a signal immediately that this won't be tolerated."