Win Semiconductors Corp (穩懋半導體) yesterday reported the highest revenue in the past 12 months for last month due to bullish demand from branded handset vendors ahead of new product launches this quarter and next quarter.
The Linkou (林口), Taoyuan County-based company said in a statement that revenue was NT$1.04 billion (US$34.5 million) last month on a consolidated basis, up 7.41 percent from the previous month, and also up 23.45 percent from a year earlier.
Win Semiconductors, the world’s largest pure-play gallium arsenide (GaAs) foundry, provides foundry services for GaAs components used in handsets, including smartphones. Its major clients — Singapore’s Avago Technologies Ltd, Japan’s Murata Manufacturing Co, China’s RDA Microelectronics Inc (銳迪科) and US-based Skyworks Solutions Inc — produce GaAs-based electronic devices used by Apple Inc, Samsung Electronics Co and Nokia Oyj in their products.
Last month, power amplifier (PA) chips accounted for more than 50 percent of its total sales, with others including Wi-Fi-linked components and infrastructure-related applications, such as those for base stations, optical fiber networks, satellite communications and national defense businesses.
Win Semiconductors’ latest sales data came after its local peers — Visual Photonics Epitaxy Co (全新光電) and Advanced Wireless Semiconductor Co (宏捷科技) — last week also reported strong sales for last month.
Last month, Visual Photonics, one of the top three GaAs epitaxial wafer manufacturers in the world, posted NT$218 million in consolidated sales, the highest level since July last year. The figure rose 5.3 percent from July and was 30.45 percent higher than in August last year.
In the same month, Advanced Wireless Semiconductor registered NT$275 million in consolidated sales, up 4.4 percent month-on-month and 221 percent year-on-year.
Win Semiconductors, Visual Photonics and Advanced Wireless Semiconductor have been dubbed among major “Apple concept stocks” in the local market and are expected to report strong sales this quarter, considering the launch of the iPhone 6 as well as demand for PA chips for non-Apple handsets and other Wi-Fi-linked components, analysts say.
In the first eight months of the year, Win Semiconductors reported cumulative sales of NT$6.13 billion, down 22.97 percent from a year earlier, with the declining pace slower than the 28.44 percent registered in the first seven months.
From January through last month, Visual Photonics’ cumulative sales were NT$1.33 billion, representing an annual fall of 16.1 percent, but also improving from the 21.65 percent decline seen in the first seven months, while Advanced Wireless Semiconductor’s sales during the same period increased 72.53 percent year-on-year to NT$1.33 billion.
However, Taiwan’s GaAs industry still faces potential challenges in the long term, such as price competition from complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor PA products, analysts say.
SEMICONDUCTORS: The German laser and plasma generator company will expand its local services as its specialized offerings support Taiwan’s semiconductor industries Trumpf SE + Co KG, a global leader in supplying laser technology and plasma generators used in chip production, is expanding its investments in Taiwan in an effort to deeply integrate into the global semiconductor supply chain in the pursuit of growth. The company, headquartered in Ditzingen, Germany, has invested significantly in a newly inaugurated regional technical center for plasma generators in Taoyuan, its latest expansion in Taiwan after being engaged in various industries for more than 25 years. The center, the first of its kind Trumpf built outside Germany, aims to serve customers from Taiwan, Japan, Southeast Asia and South Korea,
Gasoline and diesel prices at domestic fuel stations are to fall NT$0.2 per liter this week, down for a second consecutive week, CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) announced yesterday. Effective today, gasoline prices at CPC and Formosa stations are to drop to NT$26.4, NT$27.9 and NT$29.9 per liter for 92, 95 and 98-octane unleaded gasoline respectively, the companies said in separate statements. The price of premium diesel is to fall to NT$24.8 per liter at CPC stations and NT$24.6 at Formosa pumps, they said. The price adjustments came even as international crude oil prices rose last week, as traders
SIZE MATTERS: TSMC started phasing out 8-inch wafer production last year, while Samsung is more aggressively retiring 8-inch capacity, TrendForce said Chipmakers are expected to raise prices of 8-inch wafers by up to 20 percent this year on concern over supply constraints as major contract chipmakers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and Samsung Electronics Co gradually retire less advanced wafer capacity, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday. It is the first significant across-the-board price hike since a global semiconductor correction in 2023, the Taipei-based market researcher said in a report. Global 8-inch wafer capacity slid 0.3 percent year-on-year last year, although 8-inch wafer prices still hovered at relatively stable levels throughout the year, TrendForce said. The downward trend is expected to continue this year,
POWERING UP: PSUs for AI servers made up about 50% of Delta’s total server PSU revenue during the first three quarters of last year, the company said Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) reported record-high revenue of NT$161.61 billion (US$5.11 billion) for last quarter and said it remains positive about this quarter. Last quarter’s figure was up 7.6 percent from the previous quarter and 41.51 percent higher than a year earlier, and largely in line with Yuanta Securities Investment Consulting Co’s (元大投顧) forecast of NT$160 billion. Delta’s annual revenue last year rose 31.76 percent year-on-year to NT$554.89 billion, also a record high for the company. Its strong performance reflected continued demand for high-performance power solutions and advanced liquid-cooling products used in artificial intelligence (AI) data centers,
RSS