MStar Semiconductor Inc (Cayman) (晨星半導體), the world’s biggest chipmaker for LCD TVs, yesterday reported third-quarter revenues that slightly surpassed the company’s previous estimate of 10 percent sequential growth, after revenues hit an all-time high last month.
In the quarter ending Sept. 30, MStar’s revenues expanded 10.5 percent to US$320 million, exceeding the company’s forecast of between US$303 million and US$318 million.
On an annual basis, that translates into an 8 percent increase from US$296 million, according to an e-mailed statement.
MStar said revenues grew to a new high of US$118 million last month, up 8.2 percent from US$109 million in August.
The company attributed strong revenue growth to rising demand for new chips used in high-end handsets and new TV chips used in Internet TVs, adding that solid demand from emerging markets such as China had offset weakness in developed countries in the face of the stalled US and European economies.
In August, MStar expected shipments of mobile phone chips to increase by between 30 percent and 50 percent last quarter from the second quarter.
That momentum is expected to continue into the current quarter, supported by seasonal high demand. In addition, MStar is scheduled to ship new chips used in smartphones that run on the Android system. That together with growth from new set-top box chips would magnify shipments, the company said.
Company chairman Wayne -Liang (梁公偉) said last month that he “has not seen anything unexpected [to alter the company’s earlier forecast].”
Liang told investors in August that gross margins would slip to between 40 percent and 42 percent, from 42.4 percent in the second quarter.
This year, MStar aims to ship between 40 million and 60 million handset chips, which accounted for about 10 percent of the company’s revenues in the last quarter.
Competitor Mediatek Inc (聯發科) is scheduled to release third-quarter revenue figures today. Credit -Suisse expects Mediatek revenues to grow 12 percent from NT$20.98 billion in the second quarter, beating the company’s forecast of an increase of between 5 percent and 10 percent.
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