Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing Ltd (特許),the world’s third-largest maker of customized chips, posted a smaller-than-expected loss in the second quarter as orders improved.
The net loss was US$39.4 million, compared with a profit of US$43.4 million a year earlier, the Singapore-based company said in a statement yesterday. The loss was narrower than the median US$44.7 million loss estimate in a Bloomberg News survey of four analysts. Sales fell 24 percent to US$349 million.
Chartered competes with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電) in the contract chipmaking business.
The company joins Intel Corp, the world’s biggest chipmaker, and South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co in beating analysts’ estimates as orders recover and clients finish trimming inventory stockpiles. Chartered last month forecast a net loss of between US$45 million and US$53 million in the quarter, less than an April projection for a deficit of US$54 million to US$64 million.
Santa Clara, California-based Intel last week forecast sales and profit margins that topped analyst predictions. Personal computer makers are boosting orders for chips in anticipation of increased demand in the second half, chief executive officer Paul Otellini said at the time.
Samsung, Asia’s biggest maker of chips, flat screens and cellphones, reported an unexpected 5.2 percent profit gain yesterday, helped by a recovery in demand for liquid-crystal-display televisions and handsets.
Chartered forecast a net loss of between US$17 million and US$27 million in the current quarter on revenue of between US$382 million and US$394 million, the statement said.
“Our third-quarter guidance suggests we are on path to recover,” chief executive officer Chia Song Hwee (謝松輝) said in a telephone interview yesterday. “We see a great strength in recovery into the third quarter.”
Chia said the company raised its budget for capital spending this year to US$500 million from US$375 million and had rehired some workers as a result of an increase in orders.
In related news, Hynix Semiconductor Inc reported its smallest loss in seven quarters after semiconductor prices rebounded and the stronger won reduced the cost of its foreign debt.
The second-quarter net loss was 50.7 billion won, (US$41 million), compared with a deficit of 707.8 billion won a year earlier, Ichon, South Korea-based Hynix said yesterday. Hynix was expected to report net income of 49 billion won, according to the median estimate of 13 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News.
The operating loss widened 21 percent to 221.2 billion won from 183.4 billion won.
That compared with a projected operating loss of 191 billion won, based on the median estimate in the Bloomberg survey.
With an approval rating of just two percent, Peruvian President Dina Boluarte might be the world’s most unpopular leader, according to pollsters. Protests greeted her rise to power 29 months ago, and have marked her entire term — joined by assorted scandals, investigations, controversies and a surge in gang violence. The 63-year-old is the target of a dozen probes, including for her alleged failure to declare gifts of luxury jewels and watches, a scandal inevitably dubbed “Rolexgate.” She is also under the microscope for a two-week undeclared absence for nose surgery — which she insists was medical, not cosmetic — and is
CAUTIOUS RECOVERY: While the manufacturing sector returned to growth amid the US-China trade truce, firms remain wary as uncertainty clouds the outlook, the CIER said The local manufacturing sector returned to expansion last month, as the official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) rose 2.1 points to 51.0, driven by a temporary easing in US-China trade tensions, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The PMI gauges the health of the manufacturing industry, with readings above 50 indicating expansion and those below 50 signaling contraction. “Firms are not as pessimistic as they were in April, but they remain far from optimistic,” CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said at a news conference. The full impact of US tariff decisions is unlikely to become clear until later this month
GROWING CONCERN: Some senior Trump administration officials opposed the UAE expansion over fears that another TSMC project could jeopardize its US investment Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is evaluating building an advanced production facility in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and has discussed the possibility with officials in US President Donald Trump’s administration, people familiar with the matter said, in a potentially major bet on the Middle East that would only come to fruition with Washington’s approval. The company has had multiple meetings in the past few months with US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff and officials from MGX, an influential investment vehicle overseen by the UAE president’s brother, the people said. The conversations are a continuation of talks that
CHIP DUTIES: TSMC said it voiced its concerns to Washington about tariffs, telling the US commerce department that it wants ‘fair treatment’ to protect its competitiveness Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday reiterated robust business prospects for this year as strong artificial intelligence (AI) chip demand from Nvidia Corp and other customers would absorb the impacts of US tariffs. “The impact of tariffs would be indirect, as the custom tax is the importers’ responsibility, not the exporters,” TSMC chairman and chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) said at the chipmaker’s annual shareholders’ meeting in Hsinchu City. TSMC’s business could be affected if people become reluctant to buy electronics due to inflated prices, Wei said. In addition, the chipmaker has voiced its concern to the US Department of Commerce
RSS