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http://www.digitimes.com/NewsShow/MailHome.asp?datePublish=2010/5/31&pages=PR&seq=213

Winbond Electronics on May 31 announced the signing of a five-year, NT$7 billion (US$218 million) syndicated loan contract with a banking consortium. The loan will be used for technology migration.

Winbond said total capacity at its 12-inch wafer fab now reaches 35,000 wafers a month, and the company looks to advance its process technology to help strengthen its product portfolio.

Winbond has been cited as saying it will ramp up monthly wafer starts at its 12-inch fab to 55,000 units, without giving a timeframe. The company has also said it is developing 46nm technology in-house.

Winbond has said NOR flash and niche memory, including specialty DRAM, mobile RAM graphics DDR (GDDR), will remain its major focus in 2010.

Winbond in August 2009 announced plans to lower standard DRAM's sales proportion to 10% in 2010, and gradually phase out the business. The announcement came a month after the memory chipmaker secured a NT$ 3.7 billion syndicated loan to mainly repay its debts.

Commodity DRAM chips accounted for 10% of Winbond's total sales in the first quarter of 2010, down from 25% in the prior fourth quarter, according to the company's last quarterly financial report. Winbond reported revenues of NT$7.01 billion for the first quarter, up 8% sequentially and 124% on year.