Situation at Qimonda "very serious" - spokesman

FRANKFURT Nov 11 (Reuters) - The situation at loss-making chipmaker Qimonda QI.N is "very serious," a Qimonda spokesman said on Tuesday as mounting worries about the company sent stock in parent Infineon (IFXGn.DE) down as much as 8.5 percent.

"The fact is that Qimonda is in a serious downturn that is affecting the entire chip industry due to falling DRAM prices," the spokesman added.

Infineon has been trying to find a buyer for the 77 percent of Qimonda it owns after carving out and listing its former memory chip unit in 2006 in the hope of cutting its exposure to the volatile memory chip market.

Infineon shares were down 8.1 percent at 2.425 euros by 1020 GMT.

Qimonda, which is due to report results on Dec. 1, has been struggling with losses as prices for dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chips, used mainly in PCs, have fallen sharply in an oversupplied market.

Last month, Qimonda said it would cut a further 3,000 jobs and close plants in Virginia and Dresden next year. It had already announced plans to slash 10 percent of its 13,500 staff and halved its capital expenditure since the start of the DRAM downturn in early 2007.

The restructuring programme aims to save about 450 million euros in annual costs.

Restructuring charges would be about 50 million euros in the next quarter, with more possible in the next two quarters.

Since its listing on the New York Stock Exchange in 2006 Qimonda has lost 99 percent of its market capitalisation. Qimonda shares are worth $0.12 compared with $8.88 a year ago. (Reporting by Nicola Leske and Tyler Sitte in Frankfurt, Jens Hack in Munich; Editing by Jon Loades-Carter)