Some chip makers are sighing with relief, whilst others still feel as if someone is twisting thumb screws.

As China Economic News reported today, creditors told memory maker Promos it could pay back loans at a later date, as long as the company pays interest regularly. Should Promos and other taiwanese chip makers need an extension of over six months until they are to repay loans, they will have to file an application with Taiwan's Ministry of Economic Affairs.

In South Korea, memory maker Hynix has been given time and will have to repay loans sometime in this year's fourth quarter. Apart from receiving some extra time, Hynix also garnered an extra 500 billion Korean won ($381.8 million) in loans and churned out new shares worth 300 billion Korean won ($229 million). Hynix also wants to get rid of assets and save extra cash by firing workers. The company hopes to gain 1.8 trillion won ($1.14 billion) if restructuring is successful.

Taiwanese rival Promos hasn't been so lucky. Whilst its creditors have decided it would be a good idea to ask for their money back at a later date, they also deemed it wise not to hand out any fresh loans. Promos will find itself in quite a pickle, as the memory maker has to pay back matured bonds worth $320 million before February 7 2009, when Greater China celebrates its New Year. No new loans to refinance outstanding debt could cause a financial headache for Promos' management and send the stock price down. The latter would make Promos an interesting target for rival companies.

While Promos is struggling to secure new loans to refinance debt, German chip maker Infineon wants to issue new shares worth 450 million euro ($611.3 million) to increase the companies authorised capital from 224 million euro ($304 million) to 674 million euros ($916 million), as the invitation to the German company's annual shareholder meeting revealed. Infineon has to pay outstanding debts of 980 million euros ($1.3 billion) by 2010. However, Infineon can only sell new shares for a price of at least two  euro ($2.7) per share, which is the nominal value.

Infineon's closed at 1.14 euro today and will have to nearly double before anyone will buy new shares. Infineon is thus trying to pay as many debts as it can. Last year, the company bought back convertible bonds worth 217 million euro which would have matured in the middle of this year, reported the Financial Times Germany.

As CEO Peter Bauer said, the biggest problem Infineon is facing is long-term refinancing - and that is something chip makers worldwide are going to have trouble with this year, should state investors not bail them out, as in the case of Qimonda. Qimonda was Infineon's former memory unit it spun-off to be less exposed to the cyclic memory market. Infineon was Siemens' former chip unit Siemens spun off to be less exposed to the cyclic chip market which always gave the conglomerates controllers a headache. X