Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc (ASE, 日月光半導體) yesterday reported its consolidated revenue last month rose 5.8 percent month-on-month and 13.4 percent year-on-year to the highest level of NT$21.97 billion (US$747 million) this year.
ASE is the world’s largest provider of chip packaging and testing. The Greater Kaohsiung-based firm also offers electronic manufacturing services (EMS) through Universal Scientific Industrial Co (環隆電氣), which it acquired in 2010.
Analysts said the company’s record revenue for last month was boosted by its EMS subsidiary amid demand recovery among Wi-Fi module clients.
The company also benefits from the system-in-packaging business from this quarter, as it is the sole supplier of fingerprint sensors for Apple Inc’s new iPhones, they added.
However, sales generated by ASE’s core business — chip packaging and testing — declined 5.7 percent month-on-month to NT$12.4 billion from the record high level of NT$13.15 billion in October. On an annual basis, sales grew 4.8 percent, the company said in a statement.
On Oct. 30, the company guided its packaging and testing revenue for this quarter to be flat or decrease by up to 3 percent from NT$37.81 billion last quarter due to clients’ inventory adjustments, while revenue for the EMS segment would grow by more than 25 percent sequentially from NT$19.55 billion last quarter on the production ramp-up of fingerprint chips and Wi-Fi modules.
Yuanta Securities Co (元大證券) analyst George Chang (張家麒) yesterday predicted the company would report a 9 percent sequential increase in consolidated revenue this quarter to NT$61.86 billion.
From January to last month, accumulated revenue totaled NT$198.43 billion, an increase of 13.41 percent from NT$174.97 billion for the same period last year, ASE said in the statement.
SILINCONWARE
Meanwhile, rival Siliconware Precision Industries Co (SPIL, 矽品精密), the world’s second-biggest chip packager and tester, also saw last month’s revenue decline from a record level in October.
Revenue last month dropped 5.4 percent month-on-month, but rose 12.2 percent year-on-year to NT$6.2 billion, with total revenue for the first 11 months rising 5.7 percent to NT$63.24 billion, Siliconware said in a filing to the Taiwan Stock Exchange on Thursday last week.
Revenue for this month is likely to decrease between 12 percent and 15 percent from last month, while quarterly sales could drop 6 percent sequentially from NT$19.09 billion last quarter, Deutsche Bank analyst Michael Chou (周立中) said in a note.
Yet SPIL is expected to see growth recovery in the second quarter of next year after a new inventory restocking cycle emerges from next quarter and new high-end chip packaging and testing services for Qualcomm Inc, Chou said in a client note.
Wafer foundry operator Vanguard International Semiconductor Corp (世界先進) reported its consolidated revenue declined 1.7 percent month-on-month to the lowest level in seven months due to an unfavorable foreign exchange rate.
VANGUARD
However, last month’s revenue rose 13.63 percent year-on-year to NT$1.78 million, pushing the first 11-month sales to increase 22.31 percent at NT$19.32 billion, Vanguard vice president Tseng Dong-liang (曾棟樑) said in a statement.
SinoPac Securities Investment Service (永豐金投顧) analyst Chen Cheng-chieh (陳振傑) forecast the Hsinchu-based firm would see revenue this quarter decline 3.1 percent to NT$5.42 billion from last quarter, because of lower wafer shipments on maintenance-related capacity cuts and customers’ inventory adjustments.
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