April 1 (Bloomberg) -- Elpida Memory Inc. led shares of computer-memory producers higher for a second day after saying it plans to raise prices in the face of a glut that has driven chipmakers to record losses in the $31 billion market.

Elpida, Japan's largest computer-memory chip company, rose 8.1 percent to close at 3,590 yen on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, the most since Feb. 14. Samsung Electronics Co., the world's biggest maker of memory chips, advanced 2.1 percent in Seoul.

Yukio Sakamoto, Elpida's chief executive officer, said in a Bloomberg interview televised yesterday that the chipmaker plans to raise prices 20 percent this month, while BNP Paribas SA and Macquarie Group Ltd. projected an oversupply will keep prices near record lows. Taiwan's Nanya Technology Inc. said it may also increase chip prices in April.

``For us to be comfortable about a recovery in the market, we need to see that inventory throughout the channel is low, and that PC demand is holding up,'' said Ross Teverson, who helps manage $4 billion, including Samsung shares, at Standard Life Investments (Asia) Ltd. in Hong Kong. He expects an ``excess'' in supply this year as output rises 70 percent.

Elpida will tell customers it plans to boost prices of dynamic random access memory chips by 10 percent during the first half of April and by the same level in the second half of the month, Sakamoto said. A 10 percent increase would be the biggest since July 2007, according to prices tracked by Dramexchange Technology Inc., operator of Asia's largest spot market for chips.

Better Negotiations

Sakamoto's proposal should help other chipmakers negotiate better prices, Charles Park, an analyst at Calyon Securities, wrote in a report yesterday. Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. believes the DRAM market is ``bottoming,'' according to a report from analyst Steven Myers yesterday.

Infineon Technologies AG, the German semiconductor maker, rose 42 cents, or 9.4 percent, to 4.87 euros in Frankfurt trading. Qimonda AG, Infineon's memory-chip unit, climbed 12 percent to $4.31 in New York yesterday. Infineon holds about three quarters of Qimonda's stock.

Munich-based Qimonda spokesman Ralph Heinrich declined to comment on the company's price policy when contacted by Bloomberg News today.

Nanya's spokesman Pai Pei-lin said yesterday, following Elpida's comments, that the Taoyuan, Taiwan-based company may increase prices in April after demand rose recently.

`Wishful' Comments

Still, analysts at BNP Paribas and Macquarie said Elpida will probably fail to raise prices 20 percent because of oversupply.

``Elpida's comments are wishful but rather desperate,'' Peter Yu, an analyst at BNP Paribas, wrote in a report today. Memory-chip inventory for the industry is still double the usual level of two to three weeks, and a ``meaningful'' price recovery may not occur until the first quarter of 2009, Lee Do Hoon, an analyst at Macquarie, wrote in a separate report.

Samsung hasn't made any decision on pricing even though some analysts forecast a market recovery in the second quarter, James Chung, a spokesman at the Suwon, South Korea-based company, said by telephone today.

Hynix Semiconductor Inc. will negotiate prices for April based on market conditions, said James Kim, the head of investor relations. The Ichon, South Korea-based company is the world's second-largest maker of memory chips.

DRAM chips store frequently used data to speed up computer applications. Makers of DRAM typically negotiate contract prices twice a month.

Samsung's Profit

The world's biggest personal computer manufacturers didn't respond to Elpida's plans. Francis Huan, a Singapore-based spokesman for Dell Inc., Liana Teo, a spokeswoman in Singapore for Hewlett-Packard Co., and Henry Wang, a spokesman for Taipei- based Acer Inc., declined to comment. Angela Lee, a Hong Kong- based spokeswoman for Lenovo Group Ltd., said she couldn't immediately comment.

Overproduction has left Samsung as the only profitable company among major DRAM producers, according to the latest publicly available financial results. Elpida, Nanya and Qimonda have reported record losses, while Hynix and Micron Technology Inc. have posted their biggest deficits in at least four years.

Chipmakers are selling the benchmark 512-megabit DRAM chip at three cents more than the $0.88 record low in December, according to Dramexchange.

Credit Suisse Group said March 11 that prices of the 1- gibabit dynamic random access memory chip may more than double to $4 in April. Woori Investment & Securities Co. said March 21 that DRAM prices will probably rebound in the second quarter.

To contact the reporter on this story: Kevin Cho in Seoul at kcho2@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: April 1, 2008 12:06 EDT