MediaTek Inc (聯發科), the nation’s biggest handset chip supplier, yesterday posted record-high revenue for last month, thanks to robust demand for smartphones and tablets, mostly in China.
Revenue grew 6.49 percent to NT$13.89 billion (US$471.1 million) last month, compared with NT$13.04 billion in September, according to a company statement.
On an annual basis, revenue soared 32.29 percent from NT$10.5 billion.
Market analysts said the revenue growth last month indicated that the fewer working days in China due to the Golden week holiday there did not impact MediaTek’s shipments.
Even though the global semiconductor sector has entered its slow season, MediaTek president Hsieh Ching-jiang (謝清江) told investors earlier this month that he expects this quarter to be better than usual for the company thanks to shipments of new products, including octa-core and quad-core chips for smartphones and new chips for tablets.
The company expects to ship 65 million smartphone chips this quarter, unchanged from last quarter, Hsieh said.
The chipmaker expects revenue to be flat, or drop 5 percent to between NT$37.1 billion and NT$39 billion this quarter, from NT$39 billion last quarter.
Over the past five years, MediaTek has posted a quarterly decline of 15-percent on average in the fourth quarter.
Smartphone chips are the biggest revenue source for MediaTek, making up more than 55 percent of last quarter’s revenue.
In the first 10 months of the year, the company’s sales totaled NT$110.15 billion, up 32.67 percent year-on-year.
For the full year, MediaTek could see revenue grow by 34 percent to US$4.52 billion from US$3.37 billion last year, market researcher IC Insight Inc forecast on Wednesday.
That would boost MediaTek’s ranking by six notches to the world’s 16th-biggest semiconductor company, from 22nd last year, seeing the firm enter the top 20 for the first time, IC Insight said.
MediaTek shares fell 0.58 percent to NT$429.5 yesterday, compared with the TAIEX’s gain of 0.02 percent.
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