Chimei Innolux Corp (奇美電子), the nation’s biggest LCD panel maker, yesterday posted better-than-expected net profits, helped by faster integration and recovering demand for TV panels.
Net income nearly tripled to NT$9.54 billion (US$301 million), or NT$1.43 per share, in the second quarter, compared with NT$3.39 billion, or NT$0.87 per share, in the first quarter, according to a company statement.
Gross margin climbed to 12.8 percent last quarter from 10.3 percent in the first quarter.
“The results have greatly exceeded the market’s expectations,” an analyst with Fubon Securities Investment Services Co Ltd (富邦投顧) said. “We are impressed by the company’s integration efficiency, which will help boost profits in the future.”
Most analysts had expected the synergy to happen about a year after the integration of Chi Mei Optoelectronics Corp (奇美電子) and TPO Display Co (統寶光電) on March 18, he said.
“We have completed the first wave of integrating the three companies by re-locating our Chinese factories in Shenzhen, Ningbo and Nanjing and we are planning to do make structural adjustment,” chief executive Tuan Hsing-Chien (段行建) told an teleconference.
Tuan also said the company hoped to grow its monitor and TV assembling businesses, easing investors’ concern that Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), Chimei’s biggest stakeholder, would take over the businesses, as some media have reported.
“The speculation is not correct,” Tuan said.
Chimei has a shipment target of just under 40 million LCD monitors and about 5 million TVs this year, he said.
Given the outlook for the current quarter, Chimei financial executive Eddie Chen (陳彥松) said shipments of PC and TV panels would be flat or fall slightly, compared with last quarter’s 33.89 million units, of which TV panels accounted for 41 percent.
Panel prices could come down by single digit percent, from US$119 per unit because of excess inventories and an increase in panel supply, the company said. In the second quarter, prices increased 4.4 percent quarter-on-quarter.
Chimei plans to invest between NT$80 billion and NT$100 billion on capacity expansion this year.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) secured a record 70.2 percent share of the global foundry business in the second quarter, up from 67.6 percent the previous quarter, and continued widening its lead over second-placed Samsung Electronics Co, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said on Monday. TSMC posted US$30.24 billion in sales in the April-to-June period, up 18.5 percent from the previous quarter, driven by major smartphone customers entering their ramp-up cycle and robust demand for artificial intelligence chips, laptops and PCs, which boosted wafer shipments and average selling prices, TrendForce said in a report. Samsung’s sales also grew in the second quarter, up
LIMITED IMPACT: Investor confidence was likely sustained by its relatively small exposure to the Chinese market, as only less advanced chips are made in Nanjing Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) saw its stock price close steady yesterday in a sign that the loss of the validated end user (VEU) status for its Nanjing, China, fab should have a mild impact on the world’s biggest contract chipmaker financially and technologically. Media reports about the waiver loss sent TSMC down 1.29 percent during the early trading session yesterday, but the stock soon regained strength and ended at NT$1,160, unchanged from Tuesday. Investors’ confidence in TSMC was likely built on its relatively small exposure to the Chinese market, as Chinese customers contributed about 9 percent to TSMC’s revenue last
With this year’s Semicon Taiwan trade show set to kick off on Wednesday, market attention has turned to the mass production of advanced packaging technologies and capacity expansion in Taiwan and the US. With traditional scaling reaching physical limits, heterogeneous integration and packaging technologies have emerged as key solutions. Surging demand for artificial intelligence (AI), high-performance computing (HPC) and high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips has put technologies such as chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS), integrated fan-out (InFO), system on integrated chips (SoIC), 3D IC and fan-out panel-level packaging (FOPLP) at the center of semiconductor innovation, making them a major focus at this year’s trade show, according
DEBUT: The trade show is to feature 17 national pavilions, a new high for the event, including from Canada, Costa Rica, Lithuania, Sweden and Vietnam for the first time The Semicon Taiwan trade show, which opens on Wednesday, is expected to see a new high in the number of exhibitors and visitors from around the world, said its organizer, SEMI, which has described the annual event as the “Olympics of the semiconductor industry.” SEMI, which represents companies in the electronics manufacturing and design supply chain, and touts the annual exhibition as the most influential semiconductor trade show in the world, said more than 1,200 enterprises from 56 countries are to showcase their innovations across more than 4,100 booths, and that the event could attract 100,000 visitors. This year’s event features 17
RSS