Local memory chipmaker Winbond Electronics Corp (華邦電) yesterday posted its third consecutive quarterly net profit on growing demand for higher-price flash memory chips and specialty memory chips used in TVs.
Because of growing customer demand, Winbond plans to further boost its capital spending this year to NT$7.9 billion (USS$248 million) from the NT$7.5 billion forecast in April.
That represents about an 88 percent increase from the NT$4.2 billion spent last year.
Winbond’s net income more than tripled to NT$1.24 billion, or NT$0.33 per share, during the April to June period, compared with NT$894 million in the first quarter of the year. The chipmaker lost NT$2.75 billion in the second quarter of last year, according to the company’s financial statement.
Winbond said “it is optimistic about the third quarter,” according to a company filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday.
Growth momentum would carry into the third quarter, driven by special DRAM and mobile RAM chips, and, going against conservative outlooks issued by some of its competitiors, Winbond said shipments would continue to grow in the third quarter.
During the quarter ending June 30, gross margin soared to 25 percent from 17 percent in the first quarter and minus 39 percent a year ago, boosted by rising average selling prices and improved cost efficiencies following its migration to more cost-effective 90 nanometer and 65 nanometer process technologies, the statement said.
Special DRAM and flash memory chips with better margins made up 40 percent and 28 percent of Winbond’s second-quarter revenues, compared with 38 percent and 21 percent respectively in the first quarter.
The memory chipmaker’s revenue grew 22 percent quarter-on-quarter, or double last year’s figure, to NT$8.53 billion in the second quarter. Sales growth in NOR flash memory chips was the strongest, up 63 percent quarter-on-quarter as prices rose moderately on supply constraints.
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