The chip-packaging and testing industry should see higher growth than the foundry industry next year, thanks to growing demand in emerging markets and for communication products, Siliconware Precision Industries Co (矽品精密) said yesterday.
“The testing and packaging industry will fare slightly better than the foundry industry next year,” chairman Bough Lin (林文伯) told investors.
Siliconware Precision is the world’s second-largest chip packager and tester after Kaohsiung-based Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc (日月光半導體).
PCs and mobile phones have become necessities for people, and with PC shipments expected to grow next year and smartphones driving cellphone sales as a whole, the semiconductor industry will benefit from the recovering demand, Lin said.
As the US market shows signs of recovery and emerging markets see growing demand for tech products, these will help contribute to next year’s rosy outlook, he said.
To cope with the rising demand from clients, Siliconware Precision is expected to put in capital expenditure of NT$10 billion (US$300 million) next year in expanding facilities and purchasing new equipment. The figure is up from this year’s estimated NT$5.3 billion, which was raised from an earlier estimate of NT$4 billion.
The company yesterday posted a 19.6 percent year-on-year drop in third-quarter net profit to NT$2.56 billion, or NT$0.82 a share, from NT$3.19 billion, or NT$1.02 per share.
Sales in the third quarter were down 3 percent to NT$16.7 billion.
In the third quarter, net revenues from chip packaging accounted for 91 percent of total revenues at NT$15.3 billion, while testing operations took up 9 percent at NT$1.4 billion.
Gross margin fell slightly to 23.2 percent from 23.4 percent a year ago, as prices of gold — used in raw materials for chip packaging — soared and the New Taiwan dollar appreciated against the greenback, Lin said.
Business prospects in the fourth quarter are projected to be as strong as the third. Although clients are cautious about piling up stock in order not to repeat the troubles of late last year, the recovery is still on the way, he said.
The utilization rate in the fourth quarter is expected to maintain the same momentum as the third, which picked up from the first two quarters, Lin said.
Utilization rates for wire-bonding packaging, flip-chip ball-grid-array packaging and integrated-circuit logic testing equipment were 100 percent, 95 percent and 85 percent respectively in the third quarter.
Siliconware Precision shares fell 3.8 percent to NT$44.6 yesterday on the Taiwan Stock Exchange ahead of the investors conference.
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