SEMICONDUCTORS
SPIL revenue declines 7.2%
Siliconware Precision Industries Co (SPIL, 矽品精密), the world’s No. 2 chip packager, yesterday said revenue fell by 7.2 percent to NT$6.88 billion (US$220.9 million) last month from NT$7.41 billion in May, according to a company statement. That brought the company’s second-quarter revenue to NT$21.24 billion, a 2.1 percent increase from the first quarter’s NT$20.81 billion. On an annual basis, revenue shrank 3.1 percent from NT$21.93 billion last year. The figure matched SPIL’s forecast, which ranged from NT$21.2 billion to NT$22.4 billion. Chairman Bough Lin (林文伯) last month said that demand would gradually pick up next month on the back of new product launches from smartphone brands other than Apple Inc. Business visibility for the second half of this year is still unclear, as unresolved debt problems in Europe and potential rate hikes by the US Federal Reserve are overshadowing global economic growth, Lin said.
CHIPMAKERS
Lextar yearly revenue falls
LED chipmaker Lextar Electronics Corp (隆達電子) yesterday reported consolidated revenue of NT$3.59 billion for last quarter, a 5 percent decline from NT$3.78 billion in the same period last year. On a quarterly basis, the total grew by 1.98 percent from NT$3.52 billion generated in the first quarter of this year, according to the company’s filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange. Lextar’s consolidated revenue totaled NT$7.1 billion in the first half of this year, up 1.24 percent from NT$7.01 billion in the same period last year. Shares dropped 1.22 percent to NT$20.2 in Taipei trading yesterday, underperforming the TAIEX, which lost 1.09 percent.
PANELMAKERS
TPK revenue continues slide
Touchpanel maker TPK Holding Co (宸鴻) yesterday reported a 21.2 percent sequential decline in revenue for last month to NT$7.01 billion from NT$8.91 billion in May. In the period ending on Tuesday last week, revenue dropped 18 percent to NT$23.74 billion from NT$28.95 billion in the prior quarter. The decline is largely in line with the company’s forecast. TPK predicted that revenue could drop by between 15 percent and 20 percent from last quarter’s NT$28.9 billion, as demand dwindles following major smartphone and tablet clients’ product transitions. Sales are expected to recover in the second half of this year amid the launch of clients’ new products, TPK said. On an annual basis, last quarter’s revenue plunged by 22.7 percent from NT$30.7 billion in the same period last year.
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has appointed Rose Castanares, executive vice president of TSMC Arizona, as president of the subsidiary, which is responsible for carrying out massive investments by the Taiwanese tech giant in the US state, the company said in a statement yesterday. Castanares will succeed Brian Harrison as president of the Arizona subsidiary on Oct. 1 after the incumbent president steps down from the position with a transfer to the Arizona CEO office to serve as an advisor to TSMC Arizona’s chairman, the statement said. According to TSMC, Harrison is scheduled to retire on Dec. 31. Castanares joined TSMC in
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the