South Korea"s Hynix Semiconductor Inc announced a 30 percent hike in contract chip prices on Wednesday, sparking a surge in memory chipmakers" shares by signaling a possible rebound for the hard-hit sector.
Falling chip prices last year nearly toppled Hynix, the world"s third largest memory chipmaker, which is in alliance talks with larger U.S. rival Micron Technology aimed at keeping it alive until a solid price recovery takes hold.
Hynix said its price hike for long-term contract customers went into effect on Tuesday, with a 30 percent average rise based on 128 megabit DRAM (dynamic random access memory) equivalent chips.
"Sales of personal computers are rising with the spread of Windows XP," said a company spokeswoman. "A PC sales boom in China is also helping.""
Samsung Electronics, the world"s largest memory maker, said it too was considering raising contract chip prices.