Siliconware Precision Industries Co (SPIL, 矽品精密), the world’s second-largest chip packaging and testing company, swung to net profits of NT$4.3 billion (US$130.4 million) in the fourth quarter from net losses of NT$1.03 billion a year earlier, amid a recovering technology landscape.
The company, which tracks Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc (ASE, 日月光半導體) in the sector, said yesterday it planned to triple capital expenditure to boost capacity this year.
SPIL’s earnings per share were NT$1.37 in the fourth quarter of last year, compared to losses per share of NT$0.33 in the fourth quarter of 2008.
The rise in earnings was also attributed to the merger of Phoenix Precision Technology Corp (全懋精密科技) — in which SPIL is the major stakeholder — by Unimicron Corp (欣興電子). SPIL booked NT$1.95 billion in profits from the merger, chairman Bough Lin (林文伯) told an investors’ conference yesterday in Taipei.
SPIL’s revenues in the three months ended on Dec. 31 rose 35.1 percent to NT$16.8 billion from NT$12.5 billion a year earlier. Gross margins also edged up to 20.1 percent from 19.1 percent.
To cope with rising demand, Lin said the company would triple this year’s capital expenditure to NT$14.3 billion from NT$4.74 billion last year, in anticipation of its plans to expand facilities in Suzhou, China, and Taiwan, as well as buy new equipment.
This year’s capex is adjusted upward from NT$10 billion announced in October.
“The chip packaging and testing industry will grow by double digits this year,” Lin said, brushing off an analyst’s concern that the company was too aggressive in capacity expansion.
Taiwan is competitive in the semiconductor industry and the market is looking good over the next five years because of demand from emerging markets as well as expected warmer trade ties with China, he said.
To compete with ASE, SPIL said it would follow suit by increasing copper wire bonders to 2,150 units by the fourth quarter, up from 600 units in the first quarter.
First-quarter utilization rates for wire-bonding packaging, flip-chip ball-grid-array packaging and IC logic testing equipment would drop by 5 percentage points each from the last three months, to 95 percent, 90 percent and 80 percent respectively.
Shares of SPIL were up 4.25 percent to close at NT$41.7 on the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday, while those of ASE rose limit-up to NT$25.7 after Citigroup upgraded the stock to “hold” from “sell” in a note on Tuesday.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last