Siliconware Precision Industries Co (SPIL, 矽品精密) yesterday said it could perform better than seasonal patterns predict in the current quarter due to a better-than-expected PC market outlook.
The world’s second-largest chip tester and packager said sales for this quarter could decline by between 4 percent and 8 percent quarter-on-quarter, versus the average 8.11 percent sequential fall in past years.
That would cause its sales to fall within a range of between NT$17.33 billion (US$571.48 million) and NT$18.09 billion compared with the NT$18.84 billion recorded last quarter.
In a conference call, SPIL chairman Bough Lin (林文伯) told investors that “Overall, the PC market is forecast to come out of a depression this year, and the smartphone market is expected to continue expanding on the back of robust demand for mid and low-end models in emerging markets,”
Lin said a pick-up in demand for high-end chip packaging services would also help support SPIL’s sales this quarter.
The company started providing high-end chip packaging services to chipset makers beginning last year to meet smartphone and tablet market demand, he said.
Services for communication chips accounted for 60 percent of SPIL’s sales last quarter, followed by consumer product chips’ 22 percent, PC’s 14 percent share and a 4 percent share for memory modules.
Lin declined to comment on whether SPIL benefited from domestic rival Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc’s (ASE, 日月光半導體) partial plant closure in Greater Kaohsiung last month, and said “there is no clear indicator showing clients have shifted orders to SPIL.”
On Dec. 20, the Greater Kaohsiung government ordered ASE to partially shut down its K7 plant after it was discovered to be discharging toxic wastewater into the nearby Houjin River (後勁溪).
Taishin Securities Investment Advisory Co (台新投信) vice president Tony Huang (黃文清) said SPIL is unlikely to gain many new orders transferred from ASE because the latter still has enough capacity to complete all of its orders.
“SPIL’s sales performance depends on the handset market’s supply and demand. As demand for mid and low-end smartphones remains strong in developing countries like China, SPIL should see sales stabilize this quarter,” Huang said.
Huang said SPIL’s sales guidance was better than his forecast of a 8 to 10 percent quarterly fall.
However, on an annual basis, SPIL’s estimated 25.48 to 30.99 percent increase from NT$13.81 billion during the first quarter of last year is in line with Taishin Securities’ forecast due to a low comparative base, he said.
Last quarter, the firm’s net profit grew 3.4 percent quarter-on-quarter and 42.1 percent year-on-year to NT$2.26 billion, with earnings per share (EPS) of NT$0.72, according to the company’s financial report.
That brought SPIL’s net profit to NT$5.89 billion for the whole of last year.
This was up 5.3 percent from NT$5.59 billion in 2012, with full-year EPS of NT$1.89, the company’s report said.
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