Siliconware Precision Industries Co (SPIL, 矽品精密), the world’s second-largest chip packager and tester, yesterday reported that its third-quarter net income dropped 41.8 percent year-on-year to NT$1.49 billion (US$48.2 million), or NT$0.48 in earnings per share, because of a slower transition to copper wire bonders from gold wire machines amid rising gold prices.
The quarterly profit also fell 1.32 percent from NT$1.51 billion in the second quarter and represented the lowest in the last six quarters, while third-quarter revenue fell 6.7 percent year-on-year and 0.5 percent quarter-on-quarter to NT$16.3 billion, the company said in a press release.
The lower revenue and net income has harmed the company’s gross margin, which stood at 14.2 percent in the third quarter, compared with 16.9 percent in the previous quarter and 23.2 percent a year earlier.
SPIL chairman Bough Lin (林文伯) said in a Webcast yesterday that slower customer demand was one of reasons that dragged down revenue, while the falling gross margin was a result of rising gold prices and appreciation of the NT dollar, he added.
In the first three quarters, SPIL reported a net income of NT$4.51 billion, up 0.6 percent year-on-year, and revenue totaled NT$48.38 billion, up 15.8 percent year-on-year, with NT$1.44 in earnings per share.
Last month, the company announced it was suspending purchases of new equipment to cope with slower demand. Now it expects capex to reach NT$17 billion this year, lower than an earlier target of NT$21 billion, and less than NT$10 billion for next year.
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