April 9, 2004 – Micron Technology Inc., Boise, ID, is poised to achieve profitability in 2004 — and stay there, according to CEO Steve Appleton.

In an interview with Reuters, he expressed confidence that “from this point moving forward, the company will be profitable under current market conditions,” due to the double whammy of a global chip shortage and rising memory chip prices. Micron posted a $28 million loss on 26% higher sales in its 2Q04 ended in March, compared with a $619 million loss a year ago.

Quinn Bolton of Oppenheimer & Co. told Reuters that the company would benefit from strong DRAM demand and constrained supply, leading to “a robust pricing environment over the next few quarters.”

Appleton added that Micron plans to reduce its unit cost for DRAM production by 25%-30% annually, and expects to double its production capacity for non-DRAM products such as CMOS chips to 20%-25% by the end of this year. Micron’s 2004 capex budget has been set at about $1.5 billion.