Memorychip maker Winbond Electronics Corp (華邦電子) forecast its profits would expand this year from last year, supported by robust demand for memory chips used in mobile, automotive and Internet-of-Things devices, a company executive said yesterday.
“We have remained profitable for the fourth consecutive year. We foresees this year’s earnings outpacing last year on our continued efforts to increase sales of high-end products and enhance our customer portfolio,” Winbond president Chan Tung-yi (詹東義) told an investors’ conference in Taipei.
Chan declined to offer a growth estimate.
Growth momentum in Winbond’s mobile DRAM segment, which accounted for 14 percent of the firm’s total sales, would extend into this year, as Winbond has secured orders from a leading global handheld devices vendor, Chan said.
Sales contribution from automotive products is to climb from last year’s 18 percent, while shipments of SLC NAND flash would also expand this year, Chan said.
Chan said the company started migrating from 4x-nanometer technology to more advanced 3x-nanometer technology from December last year in its production of DRAM chips.
The 3x-nanometer process technology is expected to begin mass production and contribute to revenue in the third quarter of this year, he said.
As technology migration continues, Winbond expects to receive customers’ certification of its 2x-nanometer technology in the first half of next year.
To finance the technology migration plans, Winbond plans to spend up to NT$16.6 billion (US$535 million) on capital expenditure this year, including new equipment purchases and research and development, Chan said.
It would be Winbond’s highest annual capital expenditure in the company’s history, Chan said.
Winbond yesterday reported a better-than-expected net income of NT$820 million for last quarter, up from NT$817 million the previous year.
The figure represented a quarterly growth of 24.24 percent from NT$660 million in the third quarter of last year, company data showed.
In total, the firm made a net profit of NT$3.14 billion last year, down 9.51 percent from the previous year’s NT$3.47 billion.
Revenue last year climbed 10 percent to NT$42.09 billion, the data showed.
Chan attributed the decline in annual net income to higher investment in research and development.
The firm invested NT$5.75 billion in research and development last year, accounting for 13.67 percent of the company’s annual revenue of NT$42.09 billion, a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange said.
Winbond also released its revenue for last month, which fell 1.02 percent year-on-year to NT$3.42 billion.
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
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
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure